Shield of the Patriots
by ShinMarsDragon
Summary: The Howling Commandos and the Cobra Unit are called in to investigate and destroy a rumoured Nazi superweapon built with stolen HYDRA technology.
1. Chapter 1

AN: This was written for the WIP Big Bang. There is artwork by singlewalkrun here.

* * *

Outside, it was pouring rain. Inside, Montgomery won the same ten dollars off Jim for the third time that night. The rest of the Commandos lounged around the barracks, cleaning weapons, drinking coffee, and trying to doze off without much hope of success. Jim threw down his cards and glared, which just made Montgomery shrug and turn to their leader. "Captain, do you want to join in? I believe our friend Jim could use someone else to share the pain."

Steve looked up from where he was vaguely shuffling through some papers and smiled. "Why not? It's not like we're going anywhere for awhile."

Bucky picked himself up from pretending to sleep and sprawled in the extra chair as Steve took his place at the table. "Deal me in too. Not going to get to sleep with all this racket from the rain anyway."

The cards were passed around, and Montgomery hissed through his teeth at seeing his hand. Jim rolled his eyes. "Don't believe him, he bluffs _constantly_. Terrible man," he told the newcomers and they nodded as if it was important information they didn't already have from a hundred previous games. Steve bit his lip and adjusted the cards in his hand, but only Bucky drew an extra two cards.

It didn't do him much good, judging only from the look on his face. He sighed and dragged his hand through his hair. "Hey Steve. Much as I love sitting around playing cards all day, you have any idea of when we're going to get to do anything?"

"Can't say. We're waiting on intel to figure out the next place to attack, but...I don't know, in a -" He looked up and cut off quickly. "Oh! Hello agent."

"In a right now, actually." Peggy shook off some of the rain and stepped up to the card table. "Hello Captain. And hello to you all. I'm afraid I have a new mission for you." The rest of the Commandos gathered as she carefully took a set of papers out of her coat and laid them on the table. "Somehow, weaponry we've identified as similar to HYDRA weaponry has been showing up in the regular German army. So far it's only the troops around this one base, Nichts Garten." Peggy took a folded map out and spread it out, pointing at a particular base. "No one knows how or why the weapons appeared, but it's clear. We absolutely cannot let HYDRA weapons percolate through the Nazi army. We're having a hard enough time as it is."

There was a general murmur of agreement. Right now their main advantage was that HYDRA could barely make enough weapons to keep up with the ones they took out. If they actually had the German industrial machine behind them...the Nazis would have more than enough technological advantage to start regaining ground. Jacques spoke up "And we're sure that these are HYDRA-based weapons?"

"Yes. The fact they shoot blue lasers is a bit of a hint. Though these aren't nearly as powerful as the real thing, they do pack a punch. And there's another thing..." Peggy took out a piece of paper from the pile and glanced over it. "We haven't decoded all the transmissions yet, but we have some references to a sort of superweapon they're trying to build. There are numerous references that when they finish 'it' they'll be safe."

"Safe from who, though? The Allies, or HYDRA?" Steve stared at the map. Nichts Garten was probably 30 miles away, but that could take days in this rain.

"We don't know. Possibly both. Either way, your orders are to get in there and find out what's going on. Capture or destroy any HYDRA-based weaponry, capture or destroy this superweapon, and if you find the person behind this, try to capture him. If that's not possible however, it's better to have him dead than with the enemy. Now." Peggy slipped yet another set of papers out from her files and gave the assembled Commandos a serious look. "You've mostly been working on your own up until now. But owing to the urgency and importance of this mission, you're being teamed up with another unit. They've mostly been working on the Eastern Front so far, but supposedly they're one of the best teams for covert operations the Allies've got. They're called The Cobras."

The team looked at each other in confusion before erupting into chatter. "The Cobras?" "Hope they're as good as the agent says." "Supposedly one of the best?" "If they're from the Eastern Front they have to have some experience..." "I hear that place's a bloodbath." "The Cobras? If we howl, do they hiss?"

"Quiet, everyone!" Steve banged his fist on the table, and the room fell silent. "Agent, what can you tell us about these Cobras? Anything?"

Peggy frowned and didn't answer right away. When she did it was with far more uncertainty than her usual professional tone. "Honestly...even in the reports from our side, I'm not sure how much is real and how much is just there to fool the Nazis. Some of the things I'm reading here are completely unbelievable."

There was a slightly painful chuckle from Bucky, "More unbelievable than the Captain here?" He gave Steve a punch to the arm, which he took good-naturedly.

"Honestly if I hadn't seen that experiment done I wouldn't believe it either. But not even the Vita Rays could make someone part _plant_." She shook her head and when she spoke again she was back to normal. "What is sure is that their entire existence is top secret. They're only listed by codenames, and you are all completely forbidden to speak about them to anyone not in this room. Is that clear?"

"Yes, ma'am!"

"You'll be travelling to this location, just in front of enemy lines, to meet up with them. You're expected within a day. I'll go with you to there, to act as a coordinator for both units. After that, you are to travel together to the fortress Nichts Garten and complete your mission. Understood?" Everyone nodded. "Good. The mission begins as soon as you can get your rears to the truck. Dismissed!"

* * *

The truck bounced along the road in time to Jacques' swearing and the thump-thump of the wipers. Steve leaned back, only half-listening to complaints about the road, the rain, the rest of the unit for making him drive, and the general unreliability of American trucks.

"Like France makes 'em any better." Bucky said beside Steve, who made a noise that could be either agreement or denial. "Actually, does France even make cars?"

"'Course they do, son. You have to have at least heard of Citroën. They're all over the damn place here." Dum Dum looked up from from cleaning his rifle, only to have it slip out of his hands when the truck went over a particularly bad hole. For a moment, the cursing from the back and the driver's seat was in perfect stereo harmony.

"Peugeot makes some stylish cars too. I wanted a 202 since I saw one in a magazine, but...well, an imported car is a bit out of my price range." Gabe stretched his legs out and put his arms behind his head. "When I get back...aahh, I'll probably still be taking the tram."

"I want a good, reliable Ford. Something I can play around with and fix myself." Jim nodded to himself.

"Huh, Didn't know you were into hot-rodding."

"I'm not, but after all the grease-monkeying I've been doing for you guys I want to use it for something better than lying in the mud and listening to everyone bitch at me to go faster." As if on clue, the truck bounced again. "By the way, if this thing breaks down I'm making someone else go out there." Jim raised his voice and called to the front. "Hear that, Jacques?"

"I heard you, now let the road repair crews hear you!"

"Good luck," Peggy added drily. "Probably no one's getting out here until the end of the war."

Steve opened his eyes and turned his head to look at Peggy. "Well, we've been traveling for awhile, and we should be getting to the rendezvous point in a few hours. Agent, you've been going through those files, is there anything else in there that sounds like it's good information we should know about our new allies?"

"Well," Peggy again started flipping through the files that had never left her hands the entire trip, "they're technically a joint US-Soviet unit, so they have a pair of Russians with them and the other four are American. Their first mission was helping with the fighting in Stalingrad. Since then it looks like they've been active across the entire European front. Only their codenames are listed here, I suppose we'll have to ask for proper introductions when we meet them."

"A pair of Russkies, eh?" Dum Dum said, lying his rifle down. Steve and Bucky both gave him a sharp look. Dum Dum's opinion of Communists was well known. He raised his hands and shook his head. "Don't worry 'bout me. No politics on a mission, I got it."

Steve leaned back again. "Well, if they're with a group of Americans, I hope the Russians speak English. Does anyone here know any Russian? ...Gabe? You're our language expert."

"Ha! Only by default, Captain. Nah, all I know of Russian is horror stories about cases from the guys brave enough to take it."

"Actually," Montgomery spoke up from where he had been curled into the corner of the truck trying to sleep, "I spent some time wandering around eastern Europe before the war. Picked up a bit of Russian there. I'll cover anyone that wants to order some beer from our new friends."

"Well, what else do you need? That and 'what a nice dress you have' is all the Italian I ever used," Bucky said with a grin. "Well, if nothing else the rest of them should know some Russian; we can pick it up enough for a firefight on the way."

"I hope so. Communication is pretty important. I'd hate to see anyone get hurt because we couldn't understand each other." Steve bit his lip, then sighed and turned back to Peggy. "Anything else, Agent?"

"Well, one of them has an new experimental model of flamethrower, and at least two are masters of stealth and infiltration. That's probably why the top brass wanted them along on this mission." Peggy flipped through the rest of the files with barely a cursory glance. "And that's about it, I'm afraid. I suppose you'll just have to take the measure of them on the way to Nichts Garten."

Steve looked around at his assorted teammates. Just a random bunch that had been thrown together by HYDRA, and together they were one of the strongest teams anyone had seen. No one could deny there was friction, and he'd had to punch out more than a couple guys ragging on Jim or Gabe, but you couldn't argue with results. "Don't worry. It sounds like they can pull their weight, and they can't be any weirder than the group we've already got."

Jim threw a ration at his head for that one, and the truck rattled on.

* * *

"The marker! At last!" Jacques' cry heralded a massive jerk sideways that ended in the terrifying screech of metal and a disturbingly final thump. The Commandos in the back slowly picked themselves off the floor with various curses and rubbing their limbs.

"At least we stopped. I don't think I could've taken another hour of that road." Bucky grumbled as he picked himself out of his near faceplant into the far wall. Montgomery worked his way out from under him, with possibly more elbows and knees than was warranted. Dum Dum cracked his back and loudly praised his decision to sit on the floor instead, having only earned a sharp blow to the shoulders rather than the sliding all around like the rest. Gabe cuffed him upside the head.

Only super soldier reflexes had helped Steve avoid following the rest of them to the floor, and the same reflexes had let him grab Peggy to save her from driving her head directly into Jim's ribs. He set her back with an embarrassed apology and looked around. "Everyone all right?"

"Been worse Captain, been a lot worse." Dum Dum leaned over to Steve and continued in a stage-whisper, "But I'm telling you, next time we cheat to make sure Jacques _loses_ the lottery to pick the driver, yes?"

"I'm for it," Jim muttered. "Hell, next time I'll volunteer."

Steve shrugged them both off. "We'll worry about it then. Right now I want to see everyone get their packs on and their uniforms straight. We want to make a good first impression, don't we?" The rest nodded in agreement and set about doing just that. The remaining rifles were quickly unpacked and added to everyone but Steve's pack, along with a number of rations, kit, and other necessities. Long practice had brought about a smooth efficiency, and within minutes the Howling Commandos were ready to move. Steve grabbed the extra pack for Jacques, and they all piled out of the truck.

The forest, now that the truck had stopped, was quiet. The tree cover concentrated the rain from a steady downpour to heavy rivulets that poured down unwary backs. The ground was thick with old leaves and moss, softening all footfalls to a gentle padding. The Commandos moved to circle the truck, on a lookout for anything from the Cobras to an enemy patrol.

"What kind of driving was that? Do you want to alert every Nazi in the area? We're on a secret mission here, we have to be like the wind itself and leave nothing behind!" Everyone jerked suddenly as a young woman strode out of the forest as if she had simply appeared there between one minute and the next. She continued. "Are you really the team that's been taking down HYDRA bases? That loud flashy stuff might look good for the cameras, but there are no newsreels on the battlefield." She finished right in front of Steve, glaring at him like he had personally been the one to drive the truck off the road.

Slowly the Commandos and Peggy began to gather behind Steve, watching the new woman with confusion, suspicion, and interest. Steve just stared at her, trying to force out a proper response. "Well, I'm sorry about the noise, ma'am. So...I take it you're with the Cobras?"

"I am." The woman nodded curtly. "I am The Joy, leader of the Cobras. These are my men." She stepped back and waved her arm at the three men that faded out of the woods behind her without a sound.

There was another murmur of surprise with the faint undercurrent of fear from the rest of the Commandos. Bucky leaned over to Steve and whispered "I didn't see them at all! Talk about stealth. And she's the leader? A little dame like her?" Steve nodded absently, just trying to size up the group.

The Joy was young, maybe even younger than Steve. She had a bit of Peggy's take charge attitude and steel, but where Peggy was as down-to-earth and practical as you could get, The Joy had a certain ethereal aura around her. It was as if Joan of Arc or a valkyrie had stepped out of a painting, put on fatigues, and started running around in the dirt and mud of a modern war. The men behind her looked a little older, a little more experienced, but still with that faint otherworldly feeling. Though, weren't there supposed to be six of them? Before Steve could speak up, The Joy nodded at the one on the far right.

"That's The Fury, our flame soldier. He's an expert at anything having to do with fire or rockets." A large man in some sort of black combat suit with a huge pair of canisters on his back nodded and grinned like he was baring fangs.

"Yes, I am The Fury. I have a flamethrower! I will burn them all, yes?" He patted one of the canisters on his back affectionately and continued in his thick Russian accent. "My English...is not so good. You wish to speak clearly, ask The Joy or The Sorrow. I do not need words to burn." He grinned his feral smile again. "Be careful I do not burn you."

Behind Steve, someone muttered "Oh hell" too softly to identify. Steve couldn't help but agree. Dealing with a pyromaniac with bad English skills was not exactly what he had been hoping for out of this mission. On the other hand, they had known going in that there were a pair of Russians on the team, and that one of them had a flamethrower. Bad luck about them being the same person, but they'd overcome worse. Steve nodded politely and managed to get out something about being glad The Fury was on the team and hoping they could work well together. It seemed to satisfy The Joy at least, and she pointed at a space between The Fury and another Cobra.

"The Fear...oh hell. Come out! Now!" As far as anyone else could tell, she was snapping at thin air. The Commandos shared some awkward looks amongst themselves, trying avoid staring at the woman haranguing a tree. Had they lost a few members on the way? Shell shock?

And then a man crawled down the tree facing them and there was absolutely no way a human's limbs were meant to bend like that. He lept lightly to the ground, swaying almost drunkenly, but with a terrifyingly intense light in his eyes. He had...a pair of crossbows strapped to his back? Steve blinked. Seriously, crossbows? The Joy just sighed and shook her head. "There you are. This is The Fear, our spider soldier. A master of stealth and expert on poisons. He's also skilled with traps."

The Fear grinned and licked his lips with an obscenely long tongue. "Pleased to meet you all. I bring fear to my enemies...but we are to be friends. Then...I suppose I'll be watching your backs, gathered soldiers."

There was utter silence from the Commandos. Peggy looked pale, and hastily hid it under an iron mask of professionalism. Dum Dum slipped close up behind Steve and whispered to him "I know all's fair in love and war, Captain, but we could at least be honourable about it. It's the proper thing to do." Steve just elbowed him in the gut as subtly as possible. Like it or not, and he wasn't exactly liking it, these were their allies against the Nazis and HYDRA alike. He gave The Fear his best Captain America smile and something pleasant about looking out for each other.

"And there's our sniper and wilderness expert, The End." The Joy pointed at an unassuming bush, which shook slightly and parted to reveal an old man who couldn't be a day under 90. A parrot flew out of the trees and perched on his shoulder as he slowly levered himself up from the ground and gave the Commandos a deeply sceptical look. Steve was absolutely sure at this point that it wasn't _his_ team who deserved that. The Joy ignored them and kept speaking. "As you just saw, he's a master of camouflage and is able to use a limited form of photosynthesis to remain active for days at a time. Of all of us, he's the most experienced in the field." For the first time, The Joy sounded deeply respectful instead of just proud of her men. Honestly, Steve couldn't really argue with 'most experienced'...but the rest of it? Was she serious?

The End nodded slowly at all of them, seeming a bit more satisfied now he had a good look at them. "I'm glad to fight with you, in this great war. I look forward to finding your mettle as soldiers." He nodded, slowly, then settled back against a tree and closed his eyes. Steve nodded in return and managed to get out a few more pleasantries, while the rest of the Commandos and Peggy seemed to be either stunned into silence or waiting for the other shoe to drop. Peggy gave Steve an apologetic look out of the corner of her eyes, and he shrugged slightly in return. He couldn't blame anyone for assuming that abilities like this were exaggerated for the benefit of any listening Germans. He wasn't quite ready to believe what was right in front of him.

Th Joy moved on to clasp the shoulder of a pale man with glasses who looked more like he belonged in front of a classroom than in a war, though he had some of the same ethereal look The Joy did. "This is The Sorrow, who can communicate with the spirits of the dead. He can also summon them into his body to use their combat skills," she said, giving The Sorrow an affectionate smile as she did.

He gave her a fond look in return before fully facing Steve and the others. "Hello, all of you." He spoke softly, with a Russian accent, though it was noticeably lighter than The Fury's. "I mostly use my powers for gathering intelligence on the enemy. Combat...is not my strong point. But I shall let you know the voices of the dead." He bowed, slightly, as if just saying that made it real.

That got a reaction out of the assembled Commandos. Montgomery looked fascinated and ready to ask questions as soon as the introductions were over. Gabe and Jim seemed sceptical, but they stayed quiet about it. Dum Dum, not so much. He shouted "On top of everything, you want us to believe this hokum?!" at the same time Bucky spoke up with "Can you contact my mother? I'd like to see if she's okay, you know." They both broke off to stare at each other with looks of confusion and slight betrayal. Steve didn't actually know how to feel about it. He was sure souls went to Heaven or Hell when they died, but after everything else...well, he'd wait for The Sorrow to prove himself, just like all the others.

The Sorrow jerked back, offended. "It is not hokum!" he snapped back, stumbling a little on the unfamiliar word. "I hear voices of the dead. Even if you do not believe or cannot hear them, they cry out pain and sorrow to those who can." He glared at them, and the rest of the Cobras seemed ready to back him up even if it meant a fight.

It was Peggy who stepped in. "I apologize for any offence. I'm afraid we rather assumed such abilities were exaggerated in the reports, but I'm sure everyone will have a chance to prove themselves on this mission. This is, after all, a _co-operative_ operation to take out a massive threat to the Allies. There might be friction, but we need to stay professional and _deal with it like professionals,_" she said, pleasant and smooth with some very definite emphasis. There was some shuffling and awkward looks, but the tension seemed to dissipate a little...or at least was buried for the moment.

"Well said," The Joy said, still looking tense but hiding it under iron professionalism. She moved on to the last man, a giant wearing a yellow uniform and a black balaclava. "Our final member is our hornet soldier, The Pain. He can control a swarm of hornets at will to attack or deceive enemies." The Pain spun around and opened a pack on his hip, letting out a swarm of hornets that swirled around him. The Commandos all got ready to run backwards, but the hornets just settled calmly on The Pain's body like a living suit of armour.

"These are my brothers!" He raised one leg and stomped on the ground, not disturbing the hornets one bit. "With them, I will show our enemies true pain." He made another gesture and the bees formed...a tommygun? He relaxed and they dispersed again, hovering around him and filling the air with buzzing.

Steve had seen a lot of weird stuff in the war so far, but this, all of this, was taking it a little far. Way too far. He was going to fight alongside a man who thought being covered in bees was a combat tactic? He could hear Jim and Gabe whispering behind him, hopefully too faint for the Cobras to pick up on. 'Hey, don't knock it. If he really can control them...lots of people are scared of hornets. Heck, I'm scared of 'em!' 'You know what else people are scared of, Jim? _Bullets_.'

The Joy didn't seem to notice their disbelief, or maybe took their silence as acceptance of her team. Either way she turned to face them sharply and spoke with clear precision. "That's the Cobra Unit. And you are?"

Steve and Peggy looked at each other, trying to gauge who should go first. Eventually Steve deferred to the lady, and let her step forward. "I'm Agent Peggy Carter, of the Strategic Science Reserve. I'm here to help co-ordinate both your teams during this mission. Up until now I've worked heavily with Captain America and the Howling Commandos, and I look forward to supporting the Cobra Unit as well. I won't be going on the attack with you, but I'll be staying back here ready to offer any help I can over the radio." She spoke with a crispness that suggested she didn't see anything weird about the situation, and Steve had to admire her cool.

"The SSR, hm? I've heard of you, the ones working on all the extraordinary research. They have a lot of good agents working for them." The Joy seemed to relax a bit and looked at Peggy with a bit of newfound respect. "My men and I look forward to working with you as well, Agent Carter." She held out her hand, and Peggy shook it firmly. They both stepped back, and Peggy looked at Steve. So apparently he was handling the rest of the introductions. Steve squared his shoulders and summoned up every bit of speech-making prowess he had. There was no way he was going to let the Howling Commandos lose to any of this set of weirdos.

"Hello there. I'm Captain Steve Rogers, codename Captain America. I'm the leader of this band of merry men, and I carry this shield that can stop anything in its tracks. We've been mostly fighting against HYDRA up until now, and I'll try to inform you on them as we head for the fortress," Steve said while giving another picture-perfect Captain America smile. It didn't seem to impress the Cobras as much as it did the kids back in the States, but The Joy nodded with grudging approval.

"We've read all the official files on HYDRA that were provided to us, but it's always good to speak to someone with actual experience." The Joy paused, then continued in a tone a little too flat to completely mask the contempt. "But do you have another uniform? That star-spangled one stands out like a sore thumb."

This was certainly a woman who didn't hold her opinions back. Steve kept his smile pasted to his face with long practice and answered, "It's served me well on all my missions so far, ma'am." The Joy didn't look convinced, but she let the matter drop and Steve moved on.

He grabbed Bucky's shoulder and dragged him forward to stand right next to him. "This is Sergeant James Barnes, my second in command and a crack shot with a rifle. He can hit a target from a kilometer feet away, dead on." Bucky gave him a bit of a look, but it quickly disappeared under a cocky grin for the benefit of the Cobras.

"Well hello there, all of you. I'm technically Sergeant Barnes, but you can call me Bucky. I've seen a lot of HYDRA goons myself, so if Steve here can't answer any of your questions just come to me," he said. Steve didn't feel like he particularly deserved that crack, but it was true that they'd gotten a good deal of information from Bucky. Bucky just gave them another smile, particularly looking at The Joy - who definitely wasn't as impressed as the girls back home - and moved behind Steve to let him continue the introductions.

Steve gestured at Dum Dum and said, "This here is Corporal Timothy Dugan, one of the strongest men on the team and anyone's equal in hand-to-hand combat. There's not many who want to step into the ring with him." Dum Dum straightened up and tipped his bowler at the Cobras as neat as you please and told them that he looked forward to working with them and completely avoided glaring at the Russians. The Cobras acknowledged him in turn, not seeming too amazed, though Steve thought he saw The Pain give The Joy an amused look. She didn't return it.

Next Steve indicated Gabe, who was standing conveniently close to him. "This is Private Gabriel Jones, our language expert and main intelligence gatherer."

Gabe gave him a bit of a glare when he stepped up, but masked it quickly under a mask of calm. "Pleased to meet you all. I mostly speak German, but I'd be glad to start learning some Russian to help battlefield communications, if any of you want to teach me." The Cobras seemed satisfied with this, and The Sorrow especially seemed to be looking friendlier. Though when Gabe stepped back he muttered under his breath to Steve "'language expert'? Captain, I took two semesters of German and the rest I picked up here. Who's the 'expert'?"

"That's more German than any of the rest of us ever took, isn't it?" Steve whispered in return before returning his attention to what he was supposed to be doing. He pointed at Montgomery next and started talking. "This is Private Montgomery Falsworth, our scout and wilderness expert. He's also travelled extensively, so he has deep knowledge of most of Europe, Africa, and parts of Asia." Montgomery took the praise well and cheerfully told the Cobras how he'd be happy to swap travel stories and help with survival. Steve pretended not to notice when he mouthed 'scout and wilderness expert?' at him. Maybe he wasn't literally part plant, but he knew all about running around in forests and was a better tracker than anyone.

"Then here is Private Jim Morita, our technical wizard. He's great with any sort of technology, and there's no one who knows more about explosives." Jim didn't even bother to say anything to Steve, just trusting that his eyeroll would be seen and be too far away for the Cobras to notice. Technical wizard might be pushing it, but Jim was a dab hand with machines and he could throw a grenade with near pinpoint accuracy. Steve wasn't exaggerating _that_ much. Just a little, to compete with literal supernatural powers.

Jim finished up his little introduction and Steve moved on to the last member of the Howling Commandos. "And finally, this is Private Jacques Dernier, our communications expert. In addition to maintaining those, as a former member of the French resistance he has plenty of contacts and networks that have been a great help in helping us root out HYDRA." Jacques didn't seem to mind mostly being described as support, which was good because Steve was assuming the Cobras knew all of them could handle a gun perfectly well. He mostly seemed happy to be meeting some actual Russians who presumably had more Communist sympathies than, well, Dum Dum.

Jacques stepped back and Peggy took over again. "If the introductions are all finished, I believe it's time to officially start the mission." The assembled soldiers all straightened and paid attention as she continued. "As I said, I'll be staying back to support you and to provide a link with the commanders back at base. Howard - Howard Stark, the man behind most of our technological innovations - has what he says is a 'trackless radio' we'll be using to stay in contact. According to him, at least, anything we transmit with one of these cannot be traced by the enemy. They also have a basic automatic encryption on them, for added security. They can still intercept calls if they luck into the right band, though, so keep that in mind." Jacques took out his spare trackless radio and held it out to the Cobras. The Sorrow took it off his hands, turning it over and over with a good deal of curiosity. Peggy went on. "Keep those safe, there's only three in the entire world. Now, none of our intercepted communications indicate any sort of German or HYDRA troop movement in this area for at least another week, which is why we picked here as the starting point. However, that doesn't mean there's no one around. Be careful, and if any enemies see you out there, make absolutely sure they won't be making any reports back to their commanders. Understand?"

"Yes ma'am!"

"Then head out, soldiers, and God be with you." Peggy finished her speech and turned sharply on her heel as the soldiers prepared to move. Jacques took The Sorrow aside to relay more detailed information about the radio, while Montgomery, Bucky, The Joy and The End gathered in a small group to plan out the best route past enemy lines. Bucky and The Joy both looked questioningly at Steve when he didn't join them immediately, but he nodded at them and jerked his head towards Peggy to show he wanted some extra words with their liaison first. The pair looked at each other and Bucky said something to The Joy that made her give Steve an unreadable look before she shrugged and turned her attention back to the map Montgomery was holding.

Peggy slowed down when she noticed Steve trying to catch up. "What is it, Captain?"

"Just wanted to double-check about you being all right here out on your own. This isn't technically enemy territory, but backup's going to be hours away if anything happens."

Peggy nodded solemnly, then shrugged. "It's a risk, to be sure, but Howard's radios don't reach far enough to keep in contact with you all the way back at base, and we can't chance you going into an almost completely unknown situation without some way of getting information back." She paused, then continued with a tinge of morbid finality. "After all, someone has to be able to call in an airstrike if all of you can't take care of this superweapon on your own."

That was all true, but leaving anyone alone this close to the enemy didn't sit right with Steve. "Yes, but-"

"Stop it, Captain." And there was Agent Carter with her voice full of steel. "I'm taking a risk for the Allies, just like you are. There's weapons and ammunition in the truck, and I'll be scanning for any enemy activity. Don't worry, I'm not planning on throwing my life away. If I can get out I'll do it and come back as soon as it's clear. But this is my mission, and I'm going to complete it like all the rest."

Steve nodded, still unhappy about it but without any arguments left. "I understand, Agent. I just wish someone could be here with you."

Peggy laughed without much amusement. "Believe me Captain, so do I. But the brass thinks sending the Howling Commandos and the Cobra Unit out on the same mission is all the manpower they can afford to spare for this. It's a nasty business, but that's war, isn't it."

Steve could barely summon up a dry laugh in return. "It sure is, Agent. Then...I guess I'll be going." He sketched her a quick salute and walked back to join his men, leaving Peggy to settle in the truck with her radio and a spare rifle.

He slipped into the group looking at the map, listening to Montgomery talk about the area. "...and then there's a small river. It's probably a good idea to move along that for awhile, try to confuse anyone that happens across our tracks. After that the main line is here," he pointed to a marked area on the map, "but this forest isn't heavily garrisoned. There's a small outpost, but we should be able to slip through their lines without too much trouble. They'll probably be patrolling, but if we avoid the fort itself they should be easy to avoid. After that..."

"After that it's a straight shot to Nichts Garten." The Joy frowned at the map. "We'll have to avoid the roads, and patrols will increase as we get closer. The bulk of the German army is off in the east and south, but they'll definitely be guarding there. Though there is the question of HYDRA."

"Nothing to do but to go for it. It doesn't seem like there are too many natural obstacles past the river, besides any mud from this damn rain," Steve said, looking at the map he had all but memorized already. "As for HYDRA...we just don't have enough information on them. We've never been able to crack their codes, but on the upside there's not nearly as many of them as there are Nazis. If they do show up, at least they'll probably be gunning for Nichts Garten too, and they won't be expecting us either." It was a slim advantage, but it was all they had. They'd been able to use it so far, and with any luck they'd be able to keep it.

"The mud may be an advantage for us. We are on foot, and if we avoid the roads it'll be hard for any large force to pursue us," The End said. "Assuming you and your men know enough to survive in the forest."

"We've done it before, we'll do it again. Besides, we'll have the experts with us, won't be?" Bucky's tone was close to challenging.

Neither of the Cobras seemed to want to rise to the bait. "If you have any problems, feel free to ask for help," The Joy said, then turned away from the small map. "We seem to agree on our plans. Head to the river, then run along it to disguise our trail and avoid hitting the fort itself. Slip past the enemy lines, and head for the fortress. We'll reconvene on the outskirts of Nichts Garten and scope out the situation there." Her words were half addressed to the rest of the group, who had all perked up to listen.

"And keep an eye out for any good campsites as we go, we're not going to make it to the fortress in a day," Steve said. "I can't promise any sausage roasts, though." There was some laughter from the Commandos, and a few of the Cobras at least smiled.

"I can. I can roast anything we find. _Anything_," The Fury called from where he was standing and for the life of him Steve couldn't tell if he was still joking or not. He probably was?

The Joy sighed, then raised her voice over the remaining nervous chuckles. "The Captain is right, we'll camp when it's safe. Until then, move out!" Everyone rushed to obey.

It wasn't a proper march, with everyone in a line. The forest wasn't clear enough for that, and they couldn't afford the trail it would leave if they tried to force it. The Fear took off into the trees without even looking at anyone else, presumably to scout ahead. Montgomery looked at him, then askance at Steve. At Steve's nod he disappeared into the underbrush ahead as well, slightly at an angle from The Fear's heading. Dum Dum and The Fury both took up the rear, their weapons in easy reach. Everyone else kept into a loose cloud, trying to move through the wet leaves and mud as quickly as possible without leaving a blatant trail for the enemy to follow.

The Pain had turned his jacket inside out to reveal a reverse coated with a brown, papery material. He had called most of his swarm back to his pack, leaving only a few to crawl around on his body like pets. Most of the Commandos avoided him, though Jim looked interested in a careful way. Gabe walked close to The Sorrow, and Steve could hear them talking quietly in a mix of English and Russian. Steve kept an eye on The End for awhile, along with most of the Commandos, but the old man didn't seem to have any trouble navigating the forest. In fact he was by far the one who had the least amount of trouble making his way through. Once he was satisfied with that Steve made an effort to put himself next to The Joy. She matched his pace easily, which honestly surprised him a bit. He'd been expecting her to be able to march as well as many man, but he wasn't just any man any more. But after all, you didn't get to be leader of an elite special forces team by being ordinary. But thinking of ordinary... "So, The Joy, can I ask you something?" Steve said.

"Yes?"

"So...you gave us all your codenames, but you have to have real ones. I mean, your parents didn't name you 'The Joy'." It was possible they had named her 'Joy', Steve supposed. That was a perfectly good name for a girl. But that really didn't explain any of the rest of them, or why she'd add a 'The' to it. "And why The Joy, anyway?"

"We have no names outside the battlefield," The Joy replied with absolute conviction. "We gave those up when we joined the Cobras and took our place in this war."

"I have a name outside the battlefield!" Bucky called out as he caught up with the pair and marched beside them. "It's the same as my name on it."

The Joy steadfastly ignored him. "As for the other question, we are all named for emotions we found to carry into battle. The joy of battle, of serving something greater, victory...that's me. It's what I am," she said. She gave Steve a long sidelong look. "I suppose I don't need to ask where you got yours. The brilliant representation of America, coming into war at long last to save us all."

Steve was used to that bitterness by now, and at least The Joy kept it faint. He'd gotten a lot worse from Montgomery and Jacques, even if they were mostly joking now. "Yeah, I get that a lot. I know you all were fighting years ago. But I'm here now, and I'll do whatever I can," he replied, keeping his voice steady with long practice. "When did you come over here? Just...asking." If there was a bit of bitterness of his own, he tried to mask it under a light tone. From the cool look The Joy gave him he hadn't quite succeed.

"I joined the SAS as a special consultant in 1939. The Cobra Unit came later," she said, and left it at that. She did seem to be looking at him with a bit more respect now, though. It would be nice if someone could have that faith in him from the beginning, but Steve would take what he could get. But then Bucky jostled his shoulder companionably and felt heartened. He'd always have Bucky on his side, if nothing else.

Conversations slowly died as they progressed through the forest, falling into whispers and then a tense silence as they slowly got closer to the enemy. They walked as quietly as possible, alert for any noise that wasn't the rough shuffle of their passing. Steve shook the thoughts out of his head and re-concentrated on stepping lightly through the littered forest floor. The rain had slowed, turning from fat drops to a light mist and then finally dying all together towards the end of the day, though the dim twilight sun couldn't quite make up the effort to punch through the clouds.

When they found the river it was barely large enough to earn the name, honestly little more than a creek cutting through the woods. It didn't look too deep to wade through, and the bottom was covered with rocks that would hold no tracks. It was the perfect place to confuse a trail.

Montgomery was waiting for them at the edge of the river, while The Fear kept watch in the trees. He leaped down with an agility Steve had to admire as Montgomery turned to greet them. "There you all are. You sure kept us waiting."

"Not our fault if you run off ahead. No one in the area?" Steve asked.

"Nothing but rabbits and birds. But we'll find some when we get nearer to their lines," The Fear said, and he sounded almost eager to find some German soldiers. The Joy gave him a look even Steve could interpret as 'this is a _sneaking mission_, remember that' and he seemed to settle a bit. Not enough to stop moving, but from what Steve had seen so far he was nearly incapable of holding completely still.

"We'll take a short break, then keep pressing on. We should get to the enemy lines after dark." Steve looked at The Joy while he was talking, but she didn't seem to have any objections to the plan.

"Better to slip past any patrols in the night," she said, and Steve couldn't fault that. Around them their men settled down for a break after a day's walking. A few rations were taken out and shared around, backs were cracked and legs rubbed. The End sat down against a tree and was snoring softly in seconds. Jacques took out the radio and made a report to Peggy that amounted to 'nothing to report', and when he was done said that she had about the same to say in return. The Sorrow came up to The Joy and they slipped off to speak together in hushed Russian. Steve sat down next to Dum Dum to ask if he'd seen anything in the back and what he thought of their new friends so far, to which the answers were no and that they were a bunch of creepy weirdos, but at least The Fury didn't seem to be much of a communist. It was about what Steve had expected from him, really, but it was good to know.

All too soon they had to get up and move on. The group waded to the middle of the river and started to walk upstream against the light current. Even the faint grey light from the sun was fading now, though the clouds were breaking up a little. With luck they'd have a bit of moonlight to show the way. If not...they'd have to break out the flashlights just to get through the forest, with the tiny disadvantage of being a nice bright beacon for any enemy troops in the area. Steve could only hope this area had as few soldiers as they'd heard, otherwise...well, he'd gotten over a hundred prisoners out of enemy territory in the dark before, sneaking back in with a couple of elite squads couldn't be any harder.

After half a mile or so they left the river and headed back into the forest, only slightly illuminated by the moon forcing its way through the clouds. It was just enough to see by, with a bit of eyestrain. This time Montgomery and The Fear stayed in sight, though still ahead of the rest and nearly invisible in the dark. The trees were shadows with leaves of silver, and the ground barely more than inky blackness. The Joy paused, listening intently, before shaking her head and speaking. "I don't hear anything, yet. Proceed with twice as much caution."

"Don't need to tell anyone that, missy," Dum Dum muttered under his breath.

Steve shushed him just as quietly. "No talking unless you see the enemy, Corporal. They have just as good ears as we do." Dum Dum shrugged, but kept quiet as they moved on.

Progress was slow and unsteady. A deer burst out of the brush right in front of them, froze, and by some miracle was not shot before it could run off again into the forest. They stopped and waited in darkness listening for anything but the pounding of their hearts for at least fifteen minutes anyway, and only proceeded when The End said that the animals didn't know of any humans in the area besides them. Steve didn't really believe he could talk to animals, but he couldn't hear anything moving around out there or see any lights, so it seemed they were all right.

The moonlight brightened and faded over the night and even supersoldier muscles were starting to tire by the time they definitely found enemy lines - by finding the enemy. Steve almost mistook the sound of snapping twigs and rustling leaves for their own passage and nerves, but the sound of German conversation was hard to mistake. The rest of the team didn't need the hissed "down!" to drop to the ground, hiding in bushes and watching the swing of flashlights get slowly closer, coming right towards them.

It didn't seem like the enemy had noticed them yet, but it was just a matter of time. They had gotten close enough while the Commandos and Cobras were frozen that any movement would give away their position and bring on a fight. Steve watched the lights and considered his options carefully. He didn't notice The Joy shifting next to him until she whispered in his ear. "If you don't have another plan we're going to have to fight. With any luck they won't be due back for a few hours."

"I don't think we should alert anyone to our mission yet, don't you?" Steve whispered back. He could barely see the outline of The Joy's face in the dark, but he could imagine from the tilt of her head that she wasn't too happy about it either. "Stay down. I have an idea." As soon as he finished he stood up and unslung his shield.

"What are you - Get back down!" The Joy sounded as outraged as you could get in an undertone, but Steve barely paid attention. He knew how to throw his shield so that it went exactly where it was supposed to now, even in the dark, and he flung it out just slightly to the side of the enemy patrol.

The shield tore through foliage and hit a tree with a massive, resounding crack before ricocheting off and flying safely back to Steve's arm. There was a veritable waterfall of leaves and branches, accompanied by the squawks of rudely awakened birds. The enemy patrol burst out with exclamations of surprise and panic, a few of them firing wildly into the dark and causing even more general confusion. Steve signalled to everyone to start moving and if they abandoned caution to run more quickly, then the Germans were in no position to notice. Not when there was another wooden crack and the tree the shield had hit slowly fell over with a ponderous thud that shook the forest.

"What the hell was that?!" The Joy hissed at Steve as they ran past the patrol and into the very relative safety of enemy-controlled territory, confused shouts and German curses fading behind them.

"A distraction!"

There was no more time or breath for words until they stopped running out of sheer exhaustion later. The rasp of their collective breathing filled the air, but no sounds of pursuit. The Fear jumped to the tallest tree in the area and started climbing, presumably to scout, while the rest started to stake out a perimeter. Steve was counting shadows and trying to find The End when The Joy tapped him on the shoulder. "Did you get a look at their weapons as we passed? I'm pretty sure they were standard-issue," she said, her anger earlier apparently forgotten.

"I think the officer's looked different, but it was dark. I could've been imagining things." Steve considered for a bit. "That doesn't necessarily mean anything, though. I don't think they'd give their best weapons to patrol a quiet forest in the middle of the night."

The Joy nodded in agreement and paused before continuing. "If you're looking for The End, he's asleep over there. He'll wake up if we need him, but his parrot will keep his watch. I'm putting The Fury on first. And...that was good thinking, back there."

"I'm not all show, you know," Steve said, unable to resist a bit of a smirk.

"Perhaps not." With that she turned around started to walk away, but not before calling over her shoulder. "Get some sleep, Captain. We're not done yet."

"Roger that." Steve found Gabe and put him on watch as well, trusting him to wake Jim up when it was time to switch. After that he found a spot near to the edge and fell into a light doze, ready to wake up again at any suspicious sound.

* * *

"-some politician's daughter? What're you doing out here in the mud with us, then? Shouldn't you be back running the war from an office with actual carpet?" Bucky's voice roused Steve from his slumber, and he took a few minutes to take stock of the situation before getting up. The forest was filled with the pale grey light of dawn, though it looked like the clouds had come back overnight. Birds were chirping cheerfully in the branches, and there was the faint damp smell of earth after rain. It was a nice morning if you weren't in a war.

"I'm doing my duty, the same as all of you." The Joy's voice was brisk and cold, and Steve was pretty sure he should step in right about now, for the sake of inter-team unity on the mission. He kept lying there instead, just a little too curious about what Bucky would say about duty and honour and people who shouldn't be fighting in wars when it wasn't straight to Steve's face. And it wasn't like The Joy couldn't take care of herself.

"Your duty." There was a heavy pause. "Is being your father's daughter what got you to the special forces, or do you have some sort of crazy power too? A super science experiment, or were you just born that way?"

There was a hiss of breath. "I trained every day since I was a little girl to be the best damn soldier I could be. That's all I ever needed." There was another pause, this one tense and angry, before The Joy walked away, the leaves crackling under her feet.

Steve waited a bit longer, giving everyone a bit of time to cool down, then stretched with exaggerated care and sat up. He saw Bucky looking towards the trees, looking vaguely shamefaced and angry about it. He knew he needed to talk to Bucky about this. He knew Bucky was upset at getting rescued by the kid he used to have to protect, but Steve had thought they were over that, the entire matter forgiven and forgotten in the blaze of war. It might not be the best time, but the air needed clearing. Steve wasn't about to let this end his oldest friendship. He stood up and moved next to Bucky, forcing his voice to not show even the slightest hint of hurt. "Morning, Bucky. You were-"

"When'd you wake up?" Bucky's voice was oddly flat, and he refused to look at Steve.

"About the time you asked her why she was out here with us." Steve looked at Bucky out of the corner of his eye just in time to see a flash of betrayal cross Bucky's face before being smoothed away.

"...sorry. Look, just forget it. I'm not mad at you."

That wasn't the problem and Steve tried to figure out some way to express that without making the whole conversation worse. "Bucky-"

"Captain America!" The Sorrow called out from where he was kneeling on the ground with the radio. "Please come here, I am going to make a report to the Agent."

Steve hesitated, but duty won out. He clapped Bucky on the shoulder and said "We'll talk later, all right?" before walking over to The Sorrow and The Joy. Time for Captain America to face the day.

The Joy gave him a bit of a look when he crouched down beside them, but she kept her silence and Steve was grateful to her for it. The Sorrow played with the radio dials for a bit longer and started speaking into the microphone. "Hello? Hello, Agent Carter, do you hear me? Agent Carter?"

"I hear you, who is this?" Peggy's voice came through faint and crackling, but audible. Howard had never quite managed to get the same clarity out of the trackless radios that he could with regular ones.

"This is The Sorrow of the Cobra Unit, making report. The Joy and Captain America are with me. We are about halfway to Nichts Garten, in the middle of the Dunklenwald forest." The Sorrow stopped there and stared into the air like he had lost all contact with the world. When he spoke again his voice was as strong as usual, but it still somehow sounded like he was speaking from far away. "There are many dead here. They know the way to the fortress, but not the way inside. They do not know what awaits, only that it is hell. Enemy and ally, they are all sorrowing and afraid."

Peggy seemed as at loss for words as Steve. There was some static from the radio before her voice came through again. "R-Roger that, Sorrow. Keep moving towards Nichts Garten. Don't let anything get in your way. I'll inform you if we manage to intercept and decode any messages out of there."

"Any news from the rest of the war, Agent?" Steve said.

"We haven't seen anything more out of HYDRA proper, but we got a report from Italy about seeing the knock-off weapons. It seems they've at least produced enough to outfit special forces away from Nichts Garten. We don't know how long they've been out there. We've been trying to contact the Soviets to find out if they've seen anything in the east since we first heard about the weapons, but progress there is slow." Under her professional tone Steve thought he could hear some frustration at bureaucracy and tenuous allies.

The Joy and The Sorrow shared a look, then The Sorrow shrugged. The Joy spoke. "We've been out of contact with Soviet command for a few months, so I'm afraid we don't know any more than you do. If you can, get in contact with Major Stanislav Votintsev; he's the man who co-ordinated most of our missions on that side. Tell him I sent you."

"I'll relay that back to the brass. But this doesn't change your mission. Get in there and shut production of those weapons down. Over."

"Yes ma'am!" they chorused. The Sorrow turned the radio off and put it away, while Steve stood up and took a look around the camp. Jacques was cooking a rabbit over The Fury's flamethrower while chatting mostly in French and Russian. Steve couldn't understand most of what they were saying, but he caught the French for "ratfucking sons of whores". They must've been talking about politicians, then. Jim was sitting next to them skinning another rabbit and The Pain was nearby, eating one that had presumably already been cooked. Dum Dum and Gabe were splitting a few rations between themselves, and Montgomery was bringing in a few eggs from the forest. He couldn't see The Fear or The End, so he asked The Joy where they had gone off to while heading over to Jacques to get some of that breakfast.

Before she could answer a shot rang out. Steve had his shield and was facing the direction it had come from before he even quite registered that it was happening. He had to get the Commandos together and ready for a fight - the enemy was here and their cover had been completely blown - there was still a chance to fix things all he had to do was take out whoever made that shot - he was pulling back to throw his shield when someone grabbed his arm hard enough to actually stop him. "Captain! Stop it!"

Steve blinked and turned to look into The Joy's face from where she had a deathgrip on his arm. Her eyes slipped away for a moment before she started to explain with a bit of shame in her tone. "That was a Mosin Nagant, it's just The End doing a little hunting. He already asked the animals if anyone was in earshot. It's all right."

A dead goose dropped from the sky right next to The Fury, who tossed it to Jim for cleaning without a second glance. Steve looked at Jim and Jacques, who were both half out of their crouches and with one hand on their rifles, and they looked back at him in mute appeal for the right way forward. Slowly, Steve lowered his arm. "Well. Give us some warning next time, right? We _are_ in enemy territory."

"I tried. He was just a little too quick on the trigger." The Joy let go and stepped away, Steve worked his arm around as subtly as possible. Lot of grip on that woman. She continued. "Let's eat and be on our way. The sun is almost up, and we have a long way to go."

There was nothing to do but agree to that. Steve was still pretty put out about _firing unsuppressed weapons in enemy territory in a stealth mission with no warning_, but no hordes of Nazi soldiers descended upon them in the rest of the time it took to cook the remaining rabbit, the goose, and the eggs and to scarf them down with some rations, so they at least got away with it. The Fear dropped in halfway through and reported no patrols around, but there were planes on the horizon heading in the direction of Nichts Garten. Soon enough they were all fed, packed, and ready for another day's march.

The clouds scattered and reformed as the days went on, sometimes letting the sun brighten the forest into bold greens and soft shadows, sometimes washing over everything with soft greys. The ground was still soft and muddy, they had to carefully pick the thickest carpets of leaves to avoid leaving tracks even the most urban of recruits could follow. The nights were chill, and one filled with pouring rain that left them all waking up half sunk into mud. The geography changed slowly, the ground beginning to rise and fall and then start to break up into ridges and valleys. Progress was slow, but every rocky cliff scaled was one step closer to the fortress.

The teams started to intermingle a bit more over the course of the days, mostly Jacques and Jim trying to make friends, with more or less success. The rest kept a professional distance that the Cobras returned, even with Gabe learning basic Russian from The Sorrow. For his part, Steve had to admit that for all their foibles, the Cobras could hold their own in the wilderness and The Joy was a capable leader. The rest of his judgement he'd hold back until seeing them in battle.

* * *

The sun was painting the sky with bloody reds and golds when they finally saw it three days later. Nichts Garten was set in mountain face that rose away in front of them, huge and imposing in the sunset light. They were still in the shadows of a few trees, but the forest was thinner now, with smaller trees and few bushes to hide in before it disappeared entirely to be replaced with rocks and scraggly grass. The End's parrot had been watching out for them since the beginning of the day, but now it finished circling and landed on The End's shoulder to rest. The teams took what cover they could among the trees, alert for any movement. Steve laid down beside The Joy in the dirt. "Now we just wait until dark. Who do you think should infiltrate the fortress?"

"You and me, of course."

Steve gave her an incredulous look. "I thought you didn't like my uniform. Something about standing out like a sore thumb."

The Joy shrugged. "We'll have to find you a disguise. But if things go south I'd rather have you with me than someone else. And I did hear how you infiltrated that enemy camp." Steve felt that sneaking into a fortress with electric lights everywhere was a bit different from sneaking into a wide-open POW camp at night, and there was the tiny problem of his not knowing enough German to hold a conversation that wasn't mainly pointing and grunting, but The Joy kept going. "We'll have the rest of our men stage a distraction. The Pain's good at those." Steve could definitely believe that.

"Captain-!"

"_Spione!_"

Dum Dum's cry was cut off by an angry German voice with the smallest undercurrent of fear. Steve grabbed his shield and got it in front of him before the Germans could unsling their guns and start shooting. "Joy, I'll cover you, so-" The rest of his command went unheard as The Joy sprung forward with a total absence of fear and charged the enemy squadron. Apparently the Germans hadn't expected that either, and the officer barely got his rifle up before she grabbed it, twisted it down, and used the entire thing as leverage to throw the officer into the man right next to him while she aimed the rifle straight at the man on the other side, just as the officer's finger managed to find the trigger. A blast of blue light exploded from the rifle and the third man went down with a hole in his stomach, while The Joy instantly spun to punch a fourth man in the face so hard Steve could hear the crack of his jaw from ten feet away. The Fear got him just as he was stumbling back from the force of the blow. There was another gunshot, though Steve couldn't tell from who and the officer grunt combo went down like cut marionettes instead of grown men.

The remaining two Germans clearly decided discretion was the better part of valour and started to sprint off in different directions into the forest. One was caught by a burst of flame from The Fury and went down screaming and rolling on the ground before getting a shot in the head from Jim. The other ran straight into a cloud of hornets and started flailing his arms around wildly, almost turning and running straight back to the waiting Joy when another crossbow bolt pierced him straight through the throat. He fell without another sound.

It was quite possibly the fastest take down of six men Steve had seen that didn't involve a grenade or a machine gun. He stood up, feeling more than a bit overwhelmed. "Ah...good work. Any survivors?"

The Joy checked over the officer and the other soldier. "The End got them. Good work." She stood up and looked around. "The Sorrow, you know what to do." He made a noise of agreement and stared off into nothing again with his eyes wide and breathing shallow.

That old man had aimed around his leader to shoot two men at once? That was some skill with a rifle all right. But now Steve had more important things to do than admire the Cobras' skill. "All right then. Commandos, check the area for any other squads and be through this time! I don't want to get caught off-guard again! We're right next to the enemy base, so watch your backs and don't get caught!" The rest of the Commandos saluted and moved out to scan the forest for any other enemy movement. Steve started to join them, but The Joy stopped him.

"Hold on. The Sorrow's going to interrogate the officer and try to find out more about Nichts Garten. It's better for you to hear that than to go running around in the forest." She turned to her men. "Cobras, you heard the Captain! Same orders!" The Cobras, minus The Sorrow, disappeared into the forest.

"He really can - I mean, of course." There was at least something freaky about The Sorrow, but after a few days with the Cobras Steve was almost ready to believe in mediums. Was a man talking to the dead really any weirder than skinny kid Steve Rogers turning into Captain America?

The Joy narrowed her eyes at his doubts, but she didn't say anything. The Sorrow ignored them both and started speaking in Russian, then glanced at Steve and switched to English. "He is...at the start of river. I see him, and many dead cry out for his blood." He paused, then shook his head. "He is loyal. He says that Nichts Garten is invincible, even against HYDRA...Dr. Branstein's invention will keep them safe."

"How long does this usually take?" Steve whispered to The Joy. It somehow felt wrong to speak loudly in the middle of what was basically a seance, even if it was in a damp German forest instead of a fine Victorian drawing room.

"Depends on the target. But even the loyal ones give up eventually...countries and ideologies are meaningless to the dead."

Well. That was true enough. Steve straightened up and started listening to The Sorrow again. "Dr. Branstein...he was once part of HYDRA, but loyal enough to Germany to leave when the Red Skull declared his goal of conquering Europe for himself. He snuck off with HYDRA technology and has been copying and modifying it to be usable even without the Red Skull's power source. Branstein is building a superweapon...he will not tell me what it is, he merely laughs and mocks the idea of us destroying it. It is stored in the mountain, on the train tracks that come in from the back. Ah...Nichts Garten has a thousand men, all with HYDRA arms. That is all he will tell."

"Good work, Sorrow." The Joy rubbed at her chin. "1000 men is nothing to take lightly. We'd better be prepared."

"His final message: If any of us are ever in Munich, please look up Miss Helena Schneider and give her his love. He is off to the river." The Sorrow shook himself and suddenly seemed to return to the real world. He looked a little tired, but shook it off quickly. "There are more ghosts around, I will try to talk to them before we move onto the fortress. They have been dead longer, they may give up more information."

"Take a break for a bit." The Joy clapped him on the shoulder and smiled. "I'll make a report to the Agent about this Dr. Branstein, see if the brass knows anything about him."

"I've never heard of him, he must've been pretty low on the totem pole if he actually managed to get away. From what I've seen the Red Skull doesn't take defection lightly," Steve said. "We'd better have some contingency plans for party-crashers." If HYDRA hadn't gotten to Branstein by now they were probably waiting for the right opportunity...and Steve had to admit, using the Commandos and the Cobras as a distraction would work very well for HYDRA. Then again, HYDRA attacking would certainly take the pressure of 1000 soldiers with laser weapons off of them.

The Joy sighed as she took the radio from The Sorrow. "What a mess... But there's nothing for it but to move forward." She knelt in the dirt and started to work the dials. She was more clumsy at it than Jacques or The Sorrow, but she picked it up quickly.

Steve knew he should probably join her, but she knew about as much of HYDRA's plans as he did. Besides, there was something The Sorrow said that had disturbed him. "Excuse me, The Sorrow? Can I ask you something?"

"Captain America? What is it?" They stepped away, letting The Joy make her report in peace.

"You said something about a river...and the dead crying out for blood." Steve paused. He knew how it was supposed to go in the afterlife, with judgement and heaven and hell. He'd been trying not to think of it too much, here in the war and just hoping God would be able to sort everything out. He still wasn't entirely sure how much he believed in The Sorrow's powers, but it was hard to deny actionable intelligence - if any of it panned out. The Joy certainly believed in all of it, enough to make reports based on his words. But that meant Steve was talking to someone that actually knew what happened to people after they died. Even if it was a bad idea, he couldn't quite resist trying to find out more. "Just...what did you mean? Is that what happens? After you die?"

The Sorrow looked distant. "I know the dead cry out their sorrow and rage to any who can hear. I know that in death you must walk down a river, facing all those you have killed. Not many are pleased to die." He gave Steve a long look. "You will face them too, in time. It may be a long time, or a short one...but in the end you will."

Steve swallowed. "And after the river?"

"Heaven? Hell? Nothingness? I still live, Captain. There are mysteries that are only for the peaceful dead." He smiled without humour. "There are not many of those, in these times."

"No, I'd bet not." Steve rubbed at his forehead, feeling tired. "Thanks, I'll let you get back to...whatever you need to do now." The Sorrow nodded once and went back to The Joy, leaving Steve with his thoughts.

It wasn't like he didn't know what he was signing up for. War was about killing people, plain and simple. But the idea that he'd have to face every person he'd killed someday, maybe tomorrow, maybe next week... It wasn't horrifying because he didn't want to face them again - he knew more than one HYDRA agent he'd like another shot at - it was just that they killed someone, and he killed them, and someday someone would probably kill him, and every single one of them was trapped in a cycle of death and sorrow with millions of others that not even death could free them from and all because some jumped-up little tinhead had to impose his thoughts on everyone else by force. And this only a generation after the world had ripped herself apart with war the _first_ time.

The man who had gotten a crossbow bolt to the throat was at his feet, dead eyes wide and staring and mouth overflowing with blood. Steve couldn't say what kind of man he'd been, or would've been without the war that had consumed everything. Probably better off. They'd all be. Bucky would have his girls and a chance at the shop he talked about, Dum Dum would have his wife and kids, Jim would work on his parent's farm, Jacques would be working for his newspaper, Montgomery could go back to travelling, Gabe could go back to collage, The Joy would probably be dressing up and going to fancy balls as hard as that was to picture, and Steve would...he'd...

Steve shook his head. There was nothing for it. All he could do for them, for everyone, was to end the war as quickly as possible and make sure they wouldn't see another one. He packed away the anger and sorrow, gave the fallen soldier one last look and walked away. He had a fortress assault to plan. 

* * *

Steve and The Joy waited in the dark, watching a small side-door into Nichts Garten. It was guarded by two obviously bored soldiers with the knock-off HYDRA weapons, which looked like an awkward combination of practical rifle and science fiction contraption. Neither guard seemed comfortable properly holding the bulbous butt of the weapon, preferring to just rest the tip on the ground. The soldier on the right generally tried to stand up straight and regularly scanned the area with such uncaring thoroughness he missed the pair of Americans lying in the dark a few feet away from him. The soldier on the left couldn't seem to keep himself still, shifting uncomfortably from foot to foot and occasionally rubbing his stomach. The one on the right gave him a look, then sighed and dragged out a pack of cigarettes, offering one to his companion. The offer was not accepted.

"The rest should be getting into position now, attack soon. Now or then?" Steve murmured to the The Joy, who never took her eyes off the smoking guard and his miserable partner.

"I just don't want to have any more guards breathing down our necks if we attack too soon. This is just a side entrance, but we don't know how many are here and how many are elsewhere."

"I think we can take care of these two fairly quietly, at least." Steve waited for the smoker to concentrate on his cigarette and the uncomfortable one to bend over in pain before bringing his shield arm to lay in front of him, ready for action. Beside him The Joy tensed. It wouldn't even be a challenge.

"Get ready -" Whatever else The Joy wanted to say was lost under an explosion to the left. The attack, at last! Both the guards started and spun around to the source of the noise, the smoker losing his cigarette to gravity as he did. The uncomfortable one let out a wail of distress, and his partner couldn't seem to decide between investigating an attack for glory or staying put to save his own skin.

The problem was solved for the hapless guards when the door banged open to reveal a tall officer with broad shoulders and short-cropped blond hair. Steve grinned. Looked like his disguise was going to fall right into their lap. Behind the officer a pale-faced scientist in a lab coat wrung his hands and looked around him in shock, jumping as another explosion rang out. The officer wasted no time in starting to harangue the guards, and while Steve couldn't understand the words, after a couple years in the army he could understand 'get out there you maggots!' in any language. The guards grabbed up their rifles and started to move reluctantly towards the explosion, neither looking particularly thrilled about the idea, the officer right behind them and still shouting. Time for Captain America and The Joy to make their move.

Steve scrambled to his feet, swung his shield, and sent it flying directly at the officer's sharp nose while The Joy burst forward with the same fearless agility she'd used to charge the patrol squad earlier. Steve followed her a half second later, rushing forward to catch the formerly smoking guard right in the temple with a running punch and grabbing his shield on the rebound in the same moment. The officer stumbled back, grabbing his bloody nose while the guard fell silently to the ground. Steve was vaguely aware of the uncomfortable guard running into the pile of rocks to their right and he could almost swear he heard the man's stomach gurgling when he passed. Steve finished up the officer with a quick punch to the stomach and another crack upside the head with the shield, and he went down to join the guard on the ground.

The scientist took one look at the fight and turned to run away, only getting a few feet before The Joy executed a perfect running tackle to his midsection, bringing them both down in a heap on the floor. A swift crack of his head on the floor and he lay still. The Joy stayed crouched over his body, scanning the room for anyone else. Steve took a glance inside and saw mostly crates, apparently this was a storage area. No one else burst out of the woodwork yelling about enemy spies, and pretty soon The Joy stood up and looked back at Steve. "Get those two inside, we'll put them in a crate or something. What about the other one?"

Steve looked over at the pile of rocks where the uncomfortable guard had run off to. There was a wet, squelching noise and several moans of distress from behind one of the larger rocks. "Ah...I'm not sure, but I don't think he's going to make trouble." Steve called out to the guard. "Hey! You! Want trouble or no?"

"No, no!" The guard called back in-between moans. "Nicht...not Captain America sehen! Agggh!" There were more squelching noises, and the faint whiff of a terrible smell.

Steve looked at The Joy and shrugged. She glared back at him, a look Steve could pretty easily interpret as 'but what if he warns the rest of the fortress?' Steve somehow couldn't see this one being able to get around to it any time soon, but it was worth it to check. He started over to the rock, wishing for a gas mask, or even a strip of cloth to cover his nose. What were they feeding this guy? He called out "This base...danger! Verboten! Stay out! Go away!" as he approached and hit the rock with his shield. Hopefully the guard could understand his tone of voice, if nothing else. From the other side of the rock the guard made a panicked noise and there was the sound of scraping rock and rapid footfalls moving away, then a crash that sounded a lot like a man taking a slide down a mountain.

Steve took that as the cue to go back, gather up the unconscious officer and guard and drag them inside.

Once inside and with the door safely shut and locked, Steve set to getting the officer out of his pants and jacket as quickly as possible. The boots probably wouldn't fit over his uniform boots; he'd just have to hope everyone on base was too jumpy to look down. Steve shoved back his face mask and set the officer's cap firmly on his head to complete the look. The mask left an awkward lump at the base of his neck, but as long as it didn't show above the jacket collar he was probably all right. He looked over at The Joy to see her wrapping the scientist's lab coat around herself. Without the bandanna and her hair pulled back and tucked into her collar...well, she still had a definite feminine look, but she could pass as a scientist as well as Steve could pass as a German soldier.

They grabbed some rope that had been used to tie crates together and bound up the unconscious men before unceremoniously packing them into empty boxes. There were a few more explosions while they were doing that, though they were fainter than the first two. Steve hoped the rest would have the sense to get away before the Germans could get their act together, no matter what their skill they were out-numbered here. The Joy finished putting the last lid on as the boom was fading away, then she looked at Steve with pursed lips. "What do we do with the shield? You can't carry it around inconspicuously."

She had a point. Steve looked around, and seeing no better ideas, grabbed a cloth used for packing and draped it over his shield before handing it off to The Joy. "Here. Keep it covered and pretend it's important scientific equipment. If trouble comes, I'll grab it and you can take the rifle." So saying, Steve picked up the officer's rifle and looked it over. There were no labels on it, just a standard German rifle with the stock replaced by bulging chrome. Lines near the trigger glowed an ominous blue. He carried it in his arms, ignoring the strap. He couldn't say he was happy handing over his shield, but The Joy was right, there was no good reason for his disguise to be carrying around a round hunk of metal. The Joy just accepted the shield solemnly and started towards the large door to the rest of the base at a brisk pace. Steve followed.

The corridors were plain and well lit. A few men in service uniforms ran around like chickens in a flutter, but none of them bothered Steve and The Joy. Steve did his best to walk straight-backed as if he owned the place, like he was an arrogant officer that didn't want to be bothered by some silly workers who couldn't handle a few explosions without panicking. It was a little like doing shows again, where he'd put on the Captain America persona with the stage make-up. One of the showgirls, Helen, had told him the trick to getting around somewhere you weren't supposed to be was to act like you belonged there, something she'd used to sneak into all sorts of events before the war.

It proved true, and they walked out of the storage area with their cover intact. Steve resisted the urge to check around every corner, forced himself to stride boldly forward glancing neither right nor left. The plain concrete corridors with occasional boxes were replaced with white-washed corridors and flattened carpet, and rushing soldiers replaced rushing workers. Steve caught snatches of rumours as he walked past the soldiers, only understanding a few words. "HYDRA." "Johann Schmidt." "Herr Branstein." Only one man brought up Captain America, and he was quickly shouted down by his companions. It seemed the men here feared HYDRA more than the Allies. Steve walked past as quickly as possible, keeping close to The Joy and glaring at any soldiers that tried to approach. He couldn't afford to blow their cover by trying to give some private orders. Mostly because he'd only be able to give those orders in English.

Glaring and walking fast got them deeper into the base, but it didn't help them find Dr. Branstein or his superweapon. Steve looked around for scientists to follow and he hoped The Joy had the same idea. He concentrated on catching the flutter of a white labcoat or a regular suit or anything besides endless uniforms. He concentrated so hard, in fact, that it took him by surprise that the very angry man who had started yelling a few seconds ago was, in fact, yelling at him.

He jerked halfway around to see another officer approaching. This one was older, with a bit of a paunch and a bright red face under the kind of moustache that had gone out of style 20 years ago. Steve wasn't entirely up on his German rank insignias, but he could guess that this man outranked the man he was pretending to be. Steve felt The Joy slipping behind him and helped by stepping up with his best military posture.

The officer walked closer and closer, getting louder and angrier as he did, until his nose was an inch from Steve's. He finished his rant with a final explosive burst that ended with a question. It would be nice, Steve reflected, if he knew enough German to know what the officer wanted. It was probably 'why aren't you out there, maggot?' but it could also be 'who's that girl with you?' or even 'are you funning with me?' He settled for staring down the hallway - no one around, maybe all the soldiers got scared by the shouting, so much the better for him - and crisply replying with one of the few German words he knew. "Ja!"

The officer stared at him in disbelief. "Ja...?" he repeated, followed by more German. Steve wished he had bothered to ask Gabe for the German for 'yes, sir!' before they had left. Nothing for it now. The officer was staring into Steve's face as if looking for something, turning his head and checking from every angle. His eyes narrowed.

Before he could raise an alarm at this strange man impersonating an officer Steve gave him a swift uppercut to the jaw, lifting him a few inches off the ground in the bargain. He landed on the ground and swayed a bit, unable to get his bearing before The Joy grabbed him by the arm and half dragged, half flung him into an open door nearby. So that's what she had been up to. Steve took an extra few glances up and down the hallway - still clear, thank god - and rushed inside the room to heft the officer off the floor and put him in a solid headlock, restraining his right arm in a bruising grip. The man snarled and struggled in Steve's arms, but a middle-aged officer with a desk job wasn't a match for Captain America. He'd given up and settled on glaring when The Joy approached after locking the door.

"Don't think anyone saw that, but we'd better keep low anyway," she said, standing in front of Steve and the officer and crossing her arms. "Now then...after that little display I take it you don't speak any German?"

Steve shrugged as best he could while holding a man prisoner. "I know _some_. Ja, nein, danke, sterben Amerikaner... But if you know more then feel free to ask the questions."

The Joy pursed her lips, but nodded. "Wo ist Herr Branstein?" she asked, and got spit on her labcoat for her trouble.

The next thing Steve knew she had a hand in the officer's hair and a knife at his throat. Steve jerked backwards, trying to get away from her, though it didn't break her grip. "What are you _doing_?"

She gave him a clear 'what does it look like?' look and went back to threatening the officer with her knife. She repeated her question, and this time got a shaking head and muttered German Steve couldn't quite catch. The Joy frowned and pressed in with the knife. Steve felt a wet trickle on the sleeve of his borrowed uniform as the officer hissed in sudden pain.

That was more than enough for Steve. He let go of the officer's arm long enough to grab The Joy's knife-hand, dragging it away from the officer's neck. "Stop that! Stop that _right now_! We are absolutely not torturing anyone for information!"

The Joy wrenched her hand away. "Don't tell _him_ that!" She glared at Steve and he glared right back. If they had to search the entire building top to bottom for Branstein then they would. There was no way Steve was letting anyone on his side reduce themselves to that level. He might be be able to explain what it was like, finding Bucky in that camp...and it wasn't the time for it anyway. But that didn't mean he was just going to watch an ally use the tactics of the enemy.

"Have some pride as an American."

"There's no time for holding back on the battlefield." She stepped forward, raising her knife again. The officer swallowed audibly and Steve raised his hand in a warding gesture.

The tension stretched between them, both aware that they could be discovered any second, but unwilling to give even an inch to the other. The officer's eyes moved wildly back and forth between them, though he held his body carefully still. As the silence lingered, he cleared his throat. "Ah...Amerikaner...?" He added more in German, his voice strained.

The Joy shifted her eyes to him and said something in halting German. He repeated what he had said, slower and more carefully than before. The Joy snapped her eyes back to Steve, her expression unchanging. "He says if you let him go and we promise not to hurt him, he'll point us in the right direction."

Steve breathed an internal sigh of relief. It had been unintentional, but somehow they'd pulled enough of a good cop-bad cop routine to convince the guy. "Sure, I promise. What about you?"

"As long as we can continue with the mission." With that she stepped back, and Steve took that as his cue to release the officer. He stepped away but kept himself ready to rush forward and restrain again at any wrong move. He was trusting, not stupid.

Fortunately the officer had apparently meant his surrender, and he kept his movements to pressing a hand against his neck to hold back the trickle of blood. He threw dark looks at both Americans, impressing neither. The Joy said something to him in German, presumably 'get on with it'. The officer humphed, then pointed deeper into the fortress and seemed to consider this the end of his cooperation. He adjusted his uniform, smoothing out several imaginary creases and wiping off invisible dust, then crossed his arms and kept glaring at them, as if to cow them into leaving. Steve started looking around the room for some way to hold him instead. It was one thing to walk away from grunt with bowel problems to occupy him, another to leave an angry officer free to alert the base.

The room was apparently used as an office, with a desk, two chairs, a mess of papers, a mug stained with coffee, a bookshelf, and a set of lockers. Steve looked at The Joy and tilted his head to the lockers. Her eyes flicked over to them, and apparently decided that it was as good an idea as any because next she had one of the officer's arms behind his back and a hand over his mouth. Steve opened the locker for her and she shoved the officer in, ignoring his furious protests. It was a tight fit, and getting the officer out of there would be an adventure, but that was for some other poor sap to deal with. The Joy shoved the officer's handkerchief in his mouth and stepped back so Steve could close the door. He looked at the blazing red face of the officer and told him "It's not like we can just let you run around, so you're going to be a little inconvenienced. But you'll be fine," and shut the door.

"If everything goes well. If it all goes to hell he'd be dead anyway," The Joy added drily as she leaned down to pick up Steve's covered shield again. She paused, watching Steve pick up his officer's hat from where it had fallen to the floor in the struggle and put it back on. "...I was only planning on scaring him with a few scratches. A threat has to be believable to be effective."

Steve would be lying if he'd said the Commandos had never threatened an enemy for information, but he was still sore about getting taken by surprise. And besides, wasn't a knife at the throat threat enough? "We should be holding ourselves to a higher standard. We can't let ourselves become like the enemy." He picked up the rifle from where he'd dropped it by the door, but didn't take his eyes off The Joy.

"Just us, or all the Allied soldiers?" The Joy snorted, and there was a hint of bitterness in her eyes under her hard expression. "I love my country, and when I'm asked to lay down my life I won't hesitate. But I've seen too much to think that we're as pure and clean as the posters proclaim."

"I know that," Steve said, quietly. Anyone who actually went to war knew it wasn't like the newsreels and posters said it was. And he'd only heard rumours about how bad it got out there on the Eastern Front, but it probably wasn't possible for a war between the Russians and the Germans to be clean. "It's easy for men to become monsters. That's why we have to constantly strive to do better."

The Joy walked to the door and opened it without looking behind her. "Come on, let's go."

Steve followed.

The base was calming down a bit outside, but there was still tension in the air. Soldiers marched along in groups, casting wary glances around each corner as if HYDRA would burst out of the walls any second. Steve gave them sharp nods but stayed close to The Joy, trying to make it seem like he was escorting an absent-minded scientist back to safety. He got more suspicious glares than before, but no one seemed to want to challenge him on it. The number of guards just increased as they went in the direction the officer had pointed them, and Steve had to admit to getting a little nervy as the chances of a nice clean get-out got worse. Then again, there hadn't been much chance of that in the first place.

They finally came to a large set of double doors with a pair of guards outside, one of whom opened a door and gestured The Joy inside. As they approached Steve could hear someone yelling at the top of his lungs in the room, sounding absolutely furious. The guard who had opened the door rolled his eyes and whispered something to Steve with a tone of amused resignation, the only part of which Steve got was "Herr Branstein". He nodded as if he had understood and repeated "Herr Branstein" in the same tone, and got the shared smile of underlings under an unreasonable master in return. The other guard coughed and glared at them, making the door-opener straighten up immediately, as if he had never had any thought of whispering in his head. Steve nodded sharply at both of them and followed The Joy into the room.

It was a medium-sized auditorium, entirely filled with scientists and engineers in various states of disarray. Steve immediately checked around for more guards and exits, seeing a pair of small doors on the other side of the room on either side of a large blackboard, each guarded by one soldier, two more guards in about the middle of the room, and finally a last pair guarding the double doors he'd just come through. The pair by the door gave him a confused look, maybe officers weren't supposed to be here. But they didn't raise an alarm about it and Steve and The Joy were allowed to join the mass of scientists. Most were engaged in scattered conversations, a few were paying attention to the shouting man on the podium in front of the blackboard. That had be Dr. Branstein.

Dr. Branstein was a blazingly red-headed man with short, slicked-back hair and a neat, foxy moustache with a goatee. And whatever he was angry about, boy howdy was he angry about it. He pounded on the podium, waved his arms in the air, and leaned so far forward he was about to go head over heels all while raving loud enough to be heard clearly even in the very back of the room. Steve thought he caught something about HYDRA and maybe America, but it was nearly impossible to say.

He nudged at The Joy as subtly as possible and spoke in his lowest undertone, not that anyone would've heard him over the shouting. "Got a plan?"

"We can wait for him to finish and hope he goes off on his own, or we can try to trick him into coming with us," The Joy replied, sounding a little tense. Neither of them had expected to find Dr. Branstein in a room full of people.

"The longer we wait the more likely it is that someone's going to notice we don't belong." Already a few scientists were looking nervously at him, and it felt like any second a spotlight would come down and a full orchestra appear to start playing "The Star-Spangled Banner" just to give them away. Steve pulled his hat down a little further. It didn't help.

The Joy frowned, slightly, then handed Steve his shield with a muttered German phrase. Steve tried to hold it like he was doing it as a favour for someone else and followed as she made her way around the crowd of scientists to the podium. It probably didn't make sense for an officer to play page to a scientist, but Steve couldn't just put his shield down and he wasn't going to let them get separated in the middle of an enemy fortress. The guard at the door in the back gave him an odd look for it, and Steve tried not to meet his eyes.

If all this went south...he placed himself close enough to swing his shield out and give the near guard a good crack in the face. The scientists probably wouldn't attack, and he'd be able to cover The Joy when the guard on the other side started shooting. He'd have to be careful to deflect the shots away from the scientists. The ceiling was a good option, take out the lights. If he and The Joy went out the door then he could fairly easily hold off anyone following them by simple virtue of the door forcing everyone to go through single file and then filling up the doorway with unconscious or dead soldiers. Between that and a room full of non-combatants any pursuit would be heavily delayed. Then they just had to worry about making their way through a fortress full of enemies and no idea where they were going.

If all this went south.

Steve bit his lip as The Joy approached Dr. Branstein without even a hint of hesitation in her walk. Surely an actual scientist would be nervous about interrupting his boss in the middle of a rant? A few of the men in the front row who had actually been paying attention to Dr. Branstein looked curiously at her, and one nudged his fellow in the side. Were they worried about another attack? Admiring the person who dared approach? Wondering what a girl was doing here? It was impossible to tell.

The Joy pulled gently on Dr. Branstein's shirt sleeve and he jolted out his rant, for a moment unable to continue, his face a caricature of disbelief. He sputtered, sputtered with spit when The Joy said something to him with her voice pitched low, then waved his arm in a grand expansive gesture and leaned into her face.

Then he stopped.

"Fraulein?!" he bellowed, and stumbled back against the podium in shock.

A confused murmur ran through the crowd of scientists, and all the guards went on alert. The near one crept forward, his gun at the ready while the far one called "Fraulein spion!" followed by probably a command to surrender. Of course The Joy had no intention of doing so - Steve wouldn't either, in her position.

Branstein had recovered himself a bit, enough to try to move behind the podium, when The Joy grabbed him, spun him around, and ended holding him in front of her with a knife to his throat. He stiffened and for the first time since Steve had seen him dropped his voice to something appropriate for the indoors, either asking The Joy not to hurt him or the guard not to shoot. But the guard nearer to Steve had no such worries, and raised his rifle to fire directly at The Joy's back.

Steve swung his shield right into the guard's nose, sending him flying back to bounce his skull against the wall with a distinctly hollow thud. His rifle discharged as he fell, blowing a nice twelve inch hole in the ceiling and _that_ woke the scientists up from their confused stupor. The front row started clambering both over their seats and the men behind them who were scrambling to get away themselves alike. It was just a couple steps from a riot and the far guard was still trying to line up a bead on The Joy while she was backing away. Well. Steve could give him something to aim at.

He flung off the damn uniform with a flourish worthy of the stage and charged forward, shield front and howling at the top of his lungs. The guard jerked to face him with a cry of "Captain America?!", surprise in every line of his body as he started firing wildly, some of his shots managing to hit the shield and bounce away to the ceiling where lightbulbs exploded into blue light. Others scored the floor and blackboard; one caught an unfortunate scientist who couldn't get away in time and flung him against the podium where he collapsed with a pained moan. Steve flung himself forward into a roll and came up right in front of the guard, giving him a good solid punch to the stomach and another to the jaw before he could react. The guard sank to the floor and Steve gave him another good punch to the back of the head, knocking him out and finally stopping the wild firing.

Steve glanced around, the door was still closed tight but the guard in the middle of the room was fighting his way through the panicking scientists, finally just shoving the last one out of his way with the butt of his rifle. A quick look over showed The Joy firing at his fellow on the other side of the room with what looked like a Welrod pistol, still keeping Branstein close. Better to make it quick, then. The guard in front of him raised his rifle and aimed with unsteady hands, but Steve was faster and flung his shield to hit the guard right in the chest. He fell backward, losing his grip on his rifle and skidding backward on the floor. Steve caught his shield and waited to see what the guard could do, but either he'd hit his head on the floor pretty hard or he was playing dead. Either way The Joy was dragging Branstein through one of the doors and backing her up was more important than making sure one soldier was down for the count.

The scientists and engineers were in a full stampede to get out of the auditorium in direct opposition to the soldiers trying to flood in through the same set of double doors. Someone was trying to shout orders over the cacophony of screams and curses, but not to much success. Only a few people remained in the front of the room, a couple hiding under chairs, more unconscious in the aisles, and one man trying to wake up the scientist against the podium to little effect. He scrambled backward and cowered against a chair as Steve rushed past, making choked whimpering noises.

Steve raced over to catch up with The Joy. She still had her knife to Branstein's throat, though she'd had to holster her gun to hold his arms still. Beyond the door was another plain concrete hallway with a closed door at the end. Steve closed the door to the auditorium, broke the lock as best he could, then gave it a few sharp bashes with his shield for good measure. Satisfied that no one was getting it open in a hurry, he turned to The Joy. "Right. I think our options right now are fighting our way out or fighting our way out."

"You forgot, Captain America, the option of dying!" Branstein spoke up, his face twisted in a vicious grin.

"You speak English? That's convenient. Tell me, what's this superweapon you're building?" The Joy adjusted her grip, keeping her knife steady at Branstein's throat. Steve kept one eye on her as he checked down the hallway for anyone coming the other way.

"Ha, you will see soon! By stealing technology back from that traitorous hound Schmit, I have crafted the ultimate weapon to bring you Allies to your knees! And in only a few more hours, it will be ready for its first testing! The Eisenkäfer is the ultimate mixture of short and long range total destruction!"

"Yes, but what does it - Damn!" The Joy jerked her head to the side along with Steve as they both heard the far door clang open and an entire squad of enemy soldiers came rushing through.

Branstein shouted something in German that was lost under the exclamations from the squad and the sound of all their rifles charging up at once. Steve didn't give them time to fire. He jumped forward, landing on his hands and used those as a springboard to land his feet directly in the jaws of the lead pair of men. He landed and sprang back to solid ground, bringing his shield up to deflect any fire. Eight men total, two down, who knew how many behind them. Two were in range of a good punch, the other four were hanging back and aiming over the shoulders of their fellows. Correction, one in range of a good punch, as the other went down under the weight of a flying Dr. Branstein. The Joy finished him off with a sharp punch to the jaw, sending the guard down to the ground. Branstein cracked his head on the floor in the fall and laid there quietly.

"Wasn't he our important prisoner and the entire reason for the mission?" Steve asked as the other soldier in range tried to bring his rifle to bear - a stupid choice in close quarters, did he just not have a pistol? - which Steve easily deflected with his shield and followed up with a good punch to the guard's torso. The guard tried to get Steve in the nose, but his effort was more flailing than a proper punch and he went down after catching the edge of the shield with his temple.

The Joy ran forward, grabbing one of the remaining soldier's arms and flipping him into the wall with a twist and snap that meant his arm was probably broken. "I'm not planning on letting him escape. Are you?" The other three soldiers hesitated, clearly torn between duty and not getting their heads cracked together. One of the ones in the back did fire, a blue bolt hitting just above The Joy's head as she flung herself down and into a tackle aimed at another, closer, soldier's knees. They both went down in a heap and started rolling around, wrestling on the floor. The two remaining soldiers started backing away, the one who had fired aiming at Steve, the other watching The Joy's fight and clearly waiting for a good shot.

Steve took a quick glance behind him to check on Branstein, who was slowly picking himself up off the floor and shaking his head. A distinctive whine-crack of the modified rifle firing jerked his attention back in front of him, seeing one of the blue bolts coming directly at his head. Barely enough time to deflect it, but he didn't have near superhuman reflexes for nothing. He flung the shield up in front of his face, just barely angled enough to - A brief scream told Steve he had been successful, and he looked out around the shield to see the soldier who had been aiming at The Joy fly backwards and hit the ground with a smoking hole in his chest. He met eyes with the one who had fired, who was now looking distinctly frightened about what he'd gotten himself into. Now, if only Steve could remember the German for "surrender now".

Behind him Steve heard Branstein mumbling something, still sounding a little dazed. He looked back and saw Branstein stagger to his feet with a hand to his head. Steve tensed, glancing between Branstein and the remaining guards. If he grabbed Branstein the guard probably would avoid shooting at him, and it looked like the Joy had her soldier on the ropes, if the way she had him to the ground with his arm twisted behind his back was any hint, so - and then the decision was made for him when The Joy hauled herself and the soldier she was wrestling up off the floor and flung the guard straight at Branstein, dropping them both back down to the floor. The Joy instantly spun on her heel and aimed her Welrod at the last guard just as he caught up to the situation and aimed at her instead. A stand-off.

The Joy presumably asked for his surrender, but the soldier didn't lower his rifle even as the tip jerked back and forth in a nervous dance. Was he waiting for back-up, or was he hoping to take at least one of them down for some sort of glory in death? The lights on the side of his rifle were flickering, but the soldier pushed some sort of switch and they brightened steadily. Nothing for it, then.

Steve threw his shield at the wall, letting it bounce off and hit the soldier right in the temple just as The Joy fired two shots into his chest. He went down with barely a grunt.

The shield flew across to the other wall, bounced off, and returned neatly to Steve's hand. He automatically checked the open door at the end of the hallway, but no one else charged through. There were loud clangs coming from the closed one they had come through, and Steve fancied he could hear snatches of cursing coming through the steel. Time to move fast.

He tossed one unconscious soldier off of Branstein and hauled the scientist to his feet. "All right, up-si-daisy," Steve said, giving Branstein an absent look-over for wounds. He seemed to be all in one piece, if stunned and probably with a nasty headache. Steve picked him up and tucked him under one arm, then turned to The Joy. "We need to get moving. There'll probably be more resistance, do you have anything better than that popgun?"

The Joy's face twisted in irritation with a hint of disgust. "I left my Thompson with the rest of the team, since it's harder to hide on covert operations. I'll have to borrow one of theirs," she said as she tossed off the labcoat and re-tied her bandanna around her head. "This has turned out to be hotter than I'd like, but there's nothing for it. We have to complete the mission." She leaned down and grabbed one of the strange German rifles, tossing the strap over her shoulder and investigating the controls.

"Can you think of any way to contact the others?" Steve took one last look at the closed door, now bending under the weight of repeated blows before taking off for the other end of the hallway and - hopefully - a way out.

"There's one that always works," The Joy said with a smile between wry and bitter as she matched pace with Steve. "As soon as we meet some more guards I'll see what I can do."

They ran through the door and into a room filled with desks and papers, probably everything the scientists had written down about the principles of HYDRA's technology. Steve couldn't be sure what any of it said, but he grabbed a few papers filled with diagrams and equations and stuffed them into a pocket anyway. Howard could probably get something out of them. A few extra he handed to The Joy, which she silently accepted and stowed away. The sound of marching feet hurried them onward, faded as they moved through the maze of rooms and hallways that made up the back of Nichts Garten.

Beyond there The Joy looked at the signs scattered around and aimed them towards the hangar, which sounded like the best place to steal a vehicle and get out. As they continued deeper into the fortress Steve couldn't help jerking his head around at every noise, and he noticed The Joy glancing twice around every corner and door as well. They should've been buried under guards by now, so where was everyone? It all smelled like a trap. Dr. Branstein was a dead weight on Steve's arm; it didn't matter if he was really out or just faking, there were no answers from that quarter. All they could do was keep going, creeping past every open door and holding their breath at every corner.

Their instincts were proven right just before the hangar in a large room filled with various mechanical parts, some boxed up in crates and others scattered on the floor. The Joy was going ahead, rifle charged and ready and carefully sweeping the room for any threats. Steve was following her, shield in front and carrying Branstein, when a sudden impact knocked him right off his feet and sent him sprawling on the floor.

"Oof!" Steve fell back, cracking his head on the floor and losing his grip on Dr. Branstein. He rolled back on pure instinct to get away, ending up crouched behind his shield and scanning the area for the new threat. His right side ached with a slow, dull throb, but it didn't feel like he was bleeding.

"Cap-!" The Joy cut herself off and leapt backward just in time to avoid an iron fist rocketing at her stomach. The fist hit the floor instead, smashing it and shooting shards of concrete all around. The Joy fired her rifle blindly through the cloud of dust, but merely hit the other wall instead, charring and cracking it with the blue laser bolts. She paused, then called out. "Who's there?"

A figure stepped into view from behind one of the piles of crates, moving with an arrogant swagger and stopping directly between them and the far door. "Hello there, Captain America and his lady friend! It is a pleasure to meet you at last, and even more of a pleasure to grind you into dust!"

It had once been a man, Steve was fairly sure about that. But now...now the only part of him that still looked human was his wolfishly grinning face. His arms and chest were completely mechanical, wires and pistons peeking out inbetween polished steel plates that disappeared under bolted-down flesh at his neck. He wore pants but no boots, but his twisted and sharp metal feet wouldn't have fit into any of them anyway. His shaved head was covered with fresh pink scars and bolts that stuck grotesquely out of his skull. He smashed his fists together in a cloud of blue sparks and a pair of cylinders rose from his back to vent massive gouts of steam. "I am Rittersturm, the Crimson Blade Storm!" His grin got even wider, if possible. "And...your doom."

"I'm The Joy, leader of the Cobra Unit." Her voice was kept carefully neutral and her rifle aimed directly at Rittersturm. Her eyes flicked over to Branstein lying in a heap on the floor, then to Steve. Almost imperceptibly she nodded her head to the far side of the room. Steve took the hint and shifted, getting ready to circle around for a pincher.

"The Cobra Unit?" That seemed to take Rittersturm by surprise, and he looked at The Joy with a bit more respect before settling back into that grin. "Wonderful. That's wonderful! This is a perfect two birds with one stone! I was right to challenge you two myself."

"Are you the reason we haven't seen any guards?" The Joy began to move too, circling away from Steve. Rittersturm tracked her with lazy eyes, never losing his smile.

"Of course! Those cowards of the bottom ranks already wanted an excuse to run away, and it is not as if they would be able to stop you in any case. Yes?" He turned suddenly and addressed the last to Steve, who had been carefully creeping around to his flank.

Steve froze, then stood up and shook himself out like he hadn't been trying to sneak at all. "You've got it right there. Mighty nice of you, sparing your men from having to die." He doubted that had been Ritterstum's idea at all, but he could see The Joy backing away and into the mess of crates by the wall and anything to keep Rittersturm talking while she got into a better position. He'd had plenty of practice at being a target by now anyway.

"Ha! Sparing them? Most are as useless as the filth they shoot! But bodies are bodies, and the war eats up so many." He hummed to himself for a bit. "That will change soon. Once I kill both of you I will prove once and for all our superiority over you low fleshy creatures. Then like me the best will be transformed into true men of blood and iron and the world will be crushed under our heel, where it belongs!" He faced Steve and spread his arms out wide, as if to encompass the world that he wanted to ruin. "So you see, Captain -"

Steve's shield struck his chest with a clang that rang through the room. "I'm getting damn sick of all these speeches."

Rittersturm stumbled backward against the wall, cursing roundly until he managed to get a grip on himself and launched himself at Steve, snarling with fury. Steve crouched down with shield up and ready to meet the iron parody of a man.

Before Rittersturm's fists could meet the shield a one-two burst of blue laser fire exploded from the crates and hit him, one in the knee and another in the back. He flew forward, crashed into Steve and was violently flung away to bounce against the floor. There was a scratching and shuffling from the crates, then The Joy's voice floated out. "It's easier to just knock them out first, if you don't want to listen to the ranting."

Rittersturm pushed himself up, shaking his head. Before he could get his feet under him Steve sent his shield flying around in a perfect arc aimed directly at his head. Rittersturm sprung backward, launching one fist at the shield and knocking it off course. Steve had just enough time to notice that the fists were on long wires - so that was how he pulled them back - before Rittersturm sent the other fist directly at his face. Steve punched it out of the way with a sharp pain in his knuckles and the fist flew backward to shatter a crate, sending metal gears cascading down to the floor. The shield bounced off walls and crates before tumbling to the floor on the other side of the room, useless.

Rittersturm was still on the floor, though his wired fists were returning at speed. Steve took a chance and dived for his shield. A cry from The Joy alerted him while he was still halfway across the room and he turned, ready to smack another fist out of the air only to have to throw himself backward into a roll to avoid a laser that singed his uniform as it passed. Rittersturm had a gun? Where had he pulled that from? There was no time to check as more fire forced Steve to somersault along the floor away from his shield, only stopping when he flung himself behind a pile of steel plating. It wouldn't stand up long to sustained fire, but he just needed a chance to assess the situation.

"Ha! You are all certainly good at hiding!" More whirrs and bangs followed Rittersturm's taunts and the steel plates shuddered under multiple impacts. "But what can you expect from a couple of scurrying rats? Once properly challenged you're _nothing_!" Steve's hand closed around a nearby length of pipe as he carefully peeked out around the plates. Rittersturm was standing in the middle of the room, right between Steve and his shield, his mocking grin back on his face. As Steve watched he spun around, lifted a leg off the ground, and fired a shot from the point of his foot into one of the crates. The unfortunate crate exploded and between the smoke and shards Steve thought he caught a glimpse of The Joy scrambling away. He ducked back behind the plates as Rittersturm cast a lazy look over his shoulder, then tensed in preparation. As soon as Rittersturm looked away...

A slow, lazy tapping signalled movement, a glance out confirmed that Rittersturm was stalking closer to The Joy's assumed position. It was now or never.

Steve lept over the plating and hurled the pipe with Olympic accuracy straight at the back of Rittersturm's head. It struck true, sending him falling forward with a heavy thunk. But Rittersturm caught himself on his hands and kicked his legs out, firing twin bolts directly behind him. Steve dodged to the side, turning an awkward jump into a smooth roll and ending up by the loose pile of gears. Rittersturm pushed back and landed on his feet in a crouch, one leg kicking out and firing at Steve. Easily dodged.

The Joy took Rittersturm's momentary distraction to shoot and move. One bolt hit him in the chest, another fell wide and Rittersturm lurched backward, giving The Joy a second to jump across the open space between a pile of crates and a pile of engine blocks - but a second wasn't enough.

"There you are, little rat!" One of Rittersturm's fists caught her in the side and she hit the wall with a very definite thump. Steve gave a loud yell and grabbed up some of the gears to throw, hurling them like discs across the room. They wouldn't do much damage, but he was just using them as cover for rushing in and delivering a good hard punch to the iron man's face.

At least he still had a jaw like a normal person. Rittersturm went down on one hand and Steve stole a look at The Joy. She had rolled across the floor and was crouching next to his shield, not down yet by any count. Steve nodded at her with an expression that hopefully conveyed 'I'll try to set him up for shots, be ready' and she nodded what he was pretty sure was agreement in return. It was close enough, so Steve reached down and hauled Rittersturm to his feet, his other hand already coming around for another solid blow.

Rittersturm caught the blow in one hand and slammed his knee in Steve's stomach hard enough to send a jolt through his entire body. Ever since the serum Steve hadn't had to worry about fighting people as strong as he was, but it looked like those days were over. He gritted his teeth and grabbed onto Rittersturm's shoulder, shoving him around so his back faced The Joy and giving him a kick to the knee in the bargain. The knee didn't break, though Rittersturm's footing did slip for a second before another shot hit him in the back. He jerked like a puppet on strings, his limbs shaking with odd, jerky movements, but kept his balance and didn't fall. Instead he snarled, mad eyes an inch from Steve's, and shifted his grip to grab Steve around the middle and bodily hurl him up, over, and head-first into the far wall.

Newly ingrained habits had Steve twist in mid-air, tucking his head in and taking the impact on his shoulders. He still smashed into the concrete hard enough to bounce off, bouncing against wood and steel in a bone-rattling descent to the floor that left him stunned and aching. He could vaguely hear Rittersturm shouting, something about burning away the vermin once and for all, and feel The Joy prodding his shoulder, ordering him to get up. His head spun as he pushed himself up, trying to focus - just in time to see Rittersturm rip open his stomach, revealing a pointed silver rocket that blasted out straight at them.

Steve tried to tackle The Joy and get them both out of the way, but his head swam and his limbs wouldn't cooperate. He'd be fine in less than a minute, and they'd be dead in seconds. His shield was there, just out of reach and he strained for it but his arm was just a handspan too short -

The Joy grabbed it instead.

She brought it up to meet the missile just before it hit, barely giving them both time to duck behind it. The missile hit the shield and exploded with a thunderous boom loud enough to shatter eardrums, sending flames and shrapnel flying in every direction with a blinding flash. Steve felt the heat singe his uniform, shards of wood and metal embedding themselves in the leather. He crowded in closer, trying to shield The Joy's head from the worst of it - when this was over he'd tell her about all the useful advantages to be gained from _wearing a helmet_ - as all the piles of stored parts collapsed around them. Plates creaked and fell in a crash, ball bearings flew in all directions in a deadly hail, more gears rolled across the floor in a waterfall of metal, and a pile of engines tilted, groaned, and smashed to the floor.

Slowly, the worst of it ended. Unidentifiable bits of metal still peppered Steve's back, but the most massive of parts seemed to have stopped moving. He still couldn't hear over the ringing in his ears and the air was thick with dust. The Joy carefully peeked out from behind the shield, but nothing was visible past the thick clouds. She was covered in dust and bleeding from various scratches, a bruise was rising on her temple and she seemed to favour her right side. Steve was sure he didn't look any better. There was a painful scratch along his cheek and a massive bruise across his shoulders, plus other aches and pains. Nothing broken yet, at least.

The Joy met Steve's eyes and raised her finger to her lips. He nodded acknowledgement, and she handed over his shield. Steve pointed at the rifle she still carried and she raised it enough for him to see under the dust that the glowing lines on the side were completely dark. It had to be out of power, and they had no idea how to get it more. For right now their weapons amounted to his shield, her Welrod, and anything around they could use as a club.

The dust was starting to settle, and the ringing in Steve's ears slowly faded. If he listened hard he could hear mechanical clanking on the other side of the room; Rittersturm was pacing around. He probably thought they were dead and was just waiting to make sure. Not much of an advantage, but all they had. Steve nudged at The Joy and made hand gestures to convey 'separate and circle around, try catch him by surprise'. They shook hands once, for luck, and began to move.

Steve kept low as he moved, always keeping a wary eye out for a sudden attack from the clouds of dust. Soon a figure emerged from the dust whose swagger instantly identified it as Rittersturm. He was pacing, but idly and certainly not prepared to be attacked. There was no chance of seeing The Joy from where Steve was, but they couldn't afford to wait until the dust settled completely. Steve tensed, watching as Rittersturm turned to walk away, then aimed for the legs and sprung.

It might've been the slap of boots against concrete, or subtle changes in the air, or even just plain bad luck, but Rittersturm turned back while Steve was in mid-leap. He started, eyes widening in surprise for just a second before narrowing as he raised a leg glowing with ice-blue power.

Steve twisted in mid-air, trying to bring up his shield against the bolt and only partway succeeding. It tore across his shoulder, burning flesh and leather and only failing at removing his entire arm because of the shield. Unbalanced Steve crashed into the ground and rolled, ignoring the blaze of pain across his shoulder. There was the click of metal on concrete as Rittersturm strolled closer. "So you did not die! Ah, but it was too much to expect you would make this easy. But it is by struggle and dominance that the superior prove themselves, yes?" He stopped just out of reach and leaned over, grinning a bloody grin. "Now, let me prove the superiority of German engineering." He raised one leg and aimed at Steve's head.

The shot went wide as a length of steel pipe slammed into Rittersturm's chest, knocking him off balance. He stumbled backward, hopping as he tried to get his feet under him as the pipe hit him again, this time right in the face. He swung his arms wildly, cursing loudly as he tried to adjust to this new threat. "W-what? Who?!"

"Face me!" The Joy cried, wielding her length of pipe like a staff. She pressed forward with a series of poking strikes, forcing Rittersturm backward.

"Damn, you too? I was careless. But this is where it ends!" Rittersturm blocked the pipe with one arm and punched forward with the other, sending a flying fist directly at The Joy's midsection. She jumped backward, swinging the pipe so it hit the wire and wrapped around the pipe, leaving her and Rittersturm braced at two ends of an odd tug-of-war. The crucial difference was that The Joy was forced to hold her pipe with two hands, and Rittersturm still had one hand free. He brought up his other hand, taking his time to aim it right at The Joy's head.

Steve scrambled to his feet and rushed forward. He smacked the fist of the out the way with his shield, sending it flying off in another direction entirely. He glanced at The Joy, trying to communicate 'brace yourself' with nothing but a look, and grabbed onto the wire in front of him with both hands. It tensed as The Joy dug in her heels, holding onto the pipe with bloody intensity, and further when Rittersturm realised his mistake and tried futilely to reclaim his hand. Steve wrenched at the wire, feeling it dig into his hands so hard as to bruise even through his gloves. The pipe bent.

The wire snapped.

Rittersturm and The Joy both fell backwards. Rittersturm stared, immobile, at the stump where his hand used to be in shock. The Joy caught herself with the pipe and pushed off the floor like a boater to rush at him again. He managed to block her first strike, but his movements were slowed and it was simple for Steve to catch a hold of his uninjured arm and throw him to the ground. Rittersturm kicked out and got a lucky hit to Steve's knee, then used his temporary halt to roll away. He stood, got a pipe to the chest that bounced off with little effect, and reached behind him with his existing hand. Thick red-black blood poured from his nose and covered the entire lower half of his face in a gruesome mask. He wasn't grinning any more.

Steve looked at The Joy out of the corner of his eye and by unspoken communication they both charged at once. Steve aimed for the body, The Joy aimed for the head, and a step away from contact Rittersturm brought his hand out from behind him. A heartbeat away and the object in his hand grew into a sword with a glowing blue edge that sliced through The Joy's pipe like soft butter.

The Joy sidestepped to avoid the rest of Rittersturm's swing and jammed her remaining length of pipe directly into his eye. More black blood exploded out as he howled in pain and fury, reaching his stump up to bat uselessly at the metal in his eye. He raised his sword and whipped it around in a furious arc, driving Steve and The Joy back a few steps. "Du...schwein...filthy beasts! I will...I will..._Ich werde dich töten_!"

Rittersturm stabbed with his blade, thrusting forward again and again. Steve tried to dodge and flank him, but had to block a vicious swing with his shield. The swing was followed with another aimed to take his head, and another at his knees, keeping Steve too busy trying to block to think of going on the offensive. The blade clanged on the shield, unable to cut the vibranium...but Rittersturm only had to get lucky once and even supersoldier muscles would tire before wires and steel.

The Joy circled around to Rittersturm's blind spot and tried to rush in herself, but he must've heard her coming somehow and she had to back off from another wide swing. Her face twisted with frustration and pulled out her Welrod, aiming as carefully as possible. She fired.

Rittersturm jerked his sword around at the sound and sliced the bullet out of mid-air. There was a small ping as the casing bounced off the blade and hit the floor. "Ha! Too fast! Too fast for your little tricks!" he crowed.

Steve knew an opportunity when he saw one. He reached out and grabbed at Rittersturm's sword arm with both hands, then brought his knee up to the elbow with as much force as he could muster. His knee exploded into pain. Rittersturm's elbow exploded into a shower of sparks.

"Wh-? Was?" Rittersturm jerked to a halt, staring at his now-useless arm and the sword that dropped from nerveless fingers to the floor. He swayed, then came back to himself with fury. "It's not over-!"

"Carry this message into death. Tell him it's time for the snake to be reunited," The Joy said, her words solemn and formal. This time shot shot hit him right between the eyes.

Steve watched Rittersturm fall, shuddering a little as he finally let himself catch his breath and feel all the accumulated aches and pains he had gained over the battle. He waited a few minutes, just to see, but the corpse remained a corpse. Steve sighed and pressed gently at the burn on his shoulder. No blood, and his knee felt well enough to put weight on. He looked back at The Joy. "Takes care of him, at least. Now..."

The Joy reloaded her Welrod. "Now we keep going - wait." Her eyes darted around the burned and blasted room. "Where's Dr. Branstein?"

Steve looked around. She was right, Branstein was nowhere to be seen. "He must've escaped while we were fighting Rittersturm. Damn!" He couldn't recall seeing Branstein after Rittersturm's initial attack, but he's been too busy fighting to look. The man had been suspiciously still the entire way, had his unconsciousness all been a rouse? Steve had the sinking feeling that they'd fallen into a trap, one that wasn't over just because they had beaten Rittersturm. How close was this Eisenkafer to completion? If Branstein had time to activate his plane, or gun, or death ray, or whatever it was...could they beat it?

They didn't have a choice. Steve squared his shoulders and faced The Joy. "Did you notice him heading in any direction while we were fighting?" He privately hoped Branstein hadn't gone back to the maze of offices. He'd be nearly impossible to track down there, and they only had until someone figured out Ritterturm had lost before they'd have dozens of guards breathing down their necks.

The Joy paused, thoughtful. "I think I saw him heading that way," she pointed at the door to the hangar, "which would make sense if he wanted to find more guards; there weren't any behind us."

"That's true. It's also the best place to meet up with the others. The more the merrier if we end up having to search." Assuming Rittersturm delivered his message to The Sorrow properly. If he didn't, they'd have no way of knowing. But there was nothing either of them could do about that.

The Joy turned and walked towards the door. "Let's go." Steve followed.


	2. Chapter 2

A/N: Well, I failed to upload this part for months because uploading is a pain and no one seemed to care. Then I got a follow, so...here you go!

It should be noted that using the copy-paste method of making a new document for this chapter this chapter consistently errored out for no reason and I had to copy my reformatted story, put it in LibreOffice, save that, then upload that file before would accept it. Yeah, this is why I kept putting off uploading this.

* * *

They came out on a catwalk over a hangar filled with rushing workers. Ahead was a gigantic railroad tunnel, large enough for an entire convoy of trucks to drive alongside the train. On either side were large shutters, big enough for a couple trucks themselves. More catwalks crossed through the air, creating a network around the centre of the hangar. All over the place men were unloading crates, checking parts, carrying parts, shouting at each other, and frantically working on -

"I have to admit," Steve said, "I had the vague idea it was going to be a plane."

"I thought it might be a bomb, myself," The Joy responded.

In the centre of all the fuss and hurry was a gigantic rail cannon, at least 150 feet long and with a main gun that had to be at least 800mm. Machine guns dotted the sides above two odd, chunky extensions that didn't seem to belong on a train. Two huge columns extended from the rear, covered with the now-familiar glowing lines that bathed the area in ice-blue light. It had to be some sort of HYDRA technology, Steve reasoned, probably power for the engine. The entire thing was painted a plain green, as if it could possibly hide anywhere. Dr. Branstein stood balanced on top of it all, yelling directions at the men that swarmed over the cannon. As they watched a group of men set to welding a massive steel plate on top of the wheels.

"Well, that's two questions answered. The Eisenkafer is a rail cannon, and there's Dr. Branstein." Steve leaned in closer, trying to determine how far along they were to actually getting it moving. It certainly wasn't complete, but that didn't mean they couldn't do some damage.

"They must be trying to build the successor to Gustav and Dora," The Joy said. "I can't hear too clearly, but it sounds like they're almost ready to start the engine..." A man approached Branstein and told him something he apparently didn't like, judging by the slap Branstein delivered to his face. "It doesn't look like they're too confident about it."

"Those things in the rear look like the power or the battery. If we could take those out..." Steve frowned. With just a shield and a pistol there didn't seem to be much they could do to those. If only there was something around the hangar, some bazookas or mortars or _something_. Was that a crate of grenades there? Steve narrowed his eyes and tried to make it out.

"Best thing to do would be to wait for the rest of our teams to show up." The Joy settled back on her heels. "They're not going anywhere in a hurry, and we'd just be shot if we went out there right now. There's no use in a death like that."

She was right. Even if they had the proper equipment to take down the machine by themselves, down there were at least a few hundred men. Even if most of them were workers it still wasn't good odds. Still, with the advantage of surprise...it looked like they were transporting a lot of ammo to the cannon. Another truck came in while they were watching and pulled up next to crates of what looked like ammunition. When The Fury got here, his flamethrower could do a lot of damage there. There was a lot of spare plating still lying around, probably to reinforce the cannon, but it would make good cover. Lots of trucks to use too. But none of that solved the problem of being completely outnumbered. Another distraction attack to try and peel off some guards?

"Right now our main goal is to kill Branstein, destroy the Eisenkafer, and get out," The Joy said, her thoughts apparently following Steve's. He'd still like to capture Branstein and get more information on HYDRA, but barring a miracle that seemed to be off the table. "We'll need to hit them hard and fast. The End can take out Branstein, so that leaves the cannon."

"That one's my problem too. We've got some explosives, but not enough." Steve looked out over the hangar again. "I was thinking if we could set off some of theirs and steal the rest..."

"The Fury," The Joy said, matching Steve's thoughts perfectly. "Your men and The Pain can provide cover, while...Morita and The Fear gather the explosives. We'll back them up." She looked at the hangar again, deep in thought. "Now...oh!" She looked up with a mixture of surprise and vicious pleasure at the parrot that landed on at rail in front of them, whistling softly. "Where are they? Lead us to them."

The parrot squawked and took wing, with The Joy and Steve in hot pursuit.

They ran crouched over along the catwalks, slid down pipes in a shadowed corner, hid behind a truck until the frantic workers finished unloading and moved on, then dove behind a pile of crates to reunite with their teams.

"Steve! There you are!" Bucky grinned and clapped him on the back. "You look like you two got a little banged up in there."

"Another Nazi convinced he was the superman that was going to take over the world," Steve said with a shrug. "What about you?" The rest of the men looked whole and mostly uninjured, though Dum Dum was rubbing at bruised knuckles and The Sorrow looked particularly grey. The Joy patted him on the back and he gave her a slightly nervous smile in return. The Pain tapped her on the shoulder and passed over a tommy gun, which she gave a quick checking-over before accepting.

"Nothing much to tell. We were waiting around in the forest, knocking out patrols as they came along. Made an extra report to Agent Carter in there, they're still trying to get information out of the Russians but it sounds like that contact helped. But they're probably not going to be able to spare us any bombers for awhile." Steve had half been expecting that, but it was pretty vexing all the same. It seemed everything was on them, as usual. Bucky went on. "Then The Sorrow said you needed us, we found a truck going in, jumped on, threw out their cargo and shipped ourselves in instead." As if on cue, a desperate cry arose from the other side of the crates. When they peeked over the edge they saw a young worker panicking and pointing at the empty boxes that had presumably once held the Commandos and the Cobras. The man tore through the boxes before running off to drag a foreman over and let out what was presumably a torrent of apologies and 'it came like this I swear's. The foreman glared at the stubbornly empty boxes, mumbled curses under his breath, and shouted at the man and the workers that had gathered to see what the fuss was about while pointing to another area of the hangar. The workers saluted and hurried to their new assignment.

The foreman kicked at the boxes and pawed through the pile. The teams scrunched close to the ground when he climbed up and tried to look behind the pile, perhaps hoping that his supplies would magically appear there. Steve ended up half under Bucky with a discarded chunk of lumber cutting into his back, holding his breath and waiting for the foreman to finish casting his eyes around and climb back down, mumbling more curses as he did. Steve let out a shaky breath and sat up again, automatically glancing at Gabe. "Anything interesting?"

"He thinks those lazy bastards at the supply centre are completely incompetent. Some things are just universal."

"What's important is that he doesn't suspect infiltration or sabotage." The Joy frowned. "They must have seriously believed in that Rittersturm, but we can't rely on that forever. Listen up, all of you. The Captain and I have a plan." Quick and quiet Steve and The Joy outlined their plan to take out the massive rail cannon.

"It'll be dangerous, especially for you two," Steve said, looking directly at Jim and The Fear. He didn't doubt their courage, but he was never quite able to rid himself of that nervous feeling that he was sending good men, his friends, to their deaths.

Jim just grinned at him and elbowed The Fear in the side. "No problem, Cap. Between the two of us, they won't even have time to see us coming."

The Fear's smile was more like a baring of his teeth, but he looked no less eager. "We will fall upon them, and they will know true fear."

"Good." The Joy nodded, and if she was worried about the upcoming fight it didn't show in her face or her tone. "We'll be right beside you, so don't worry about fighting. Just concentrate on grabbing as many explosives as you can."

Steve shifted so he could just barely peek over the pile of crates. "Right then..." He watched the workers rush about, waiting until the flow of workers moved away from the pile of ammunition and explosives and towards reinforcing the behemoth of a cannon, for the men still working there to turn around, for -

Up on the catwalk, where he had been just a few minutes ago, a soldier started screaming. The noise didn't even sound like language anymore, but the fact he was dragging Rittersturm's body made the idea behind it clear. A few guards ran over to help him, while the activity in the hangar slowly fell to a halt as everyone stopped to look, whisper, and spread rumours. A murmuring turned into a roar, and within that a few words were clear. "Spione." "Amerikaner." "Captain America."

Steve's hand clenched on the crate in front of him, though through sheer force of will he kept his voice calm. "Well men, our luck was never going to hold forever. Up and over, now!" And with that, he lept from behind their shelter, ready for a fight.

Before any but The Fear could follow him a blazing lance of that distinct blue-white light hit the Eisenkafer head-on.

For a moment, everyone in the hangar stopped. They all turned to face the huge railway tunnel, and now, without the noise of hundreds of rushing, shouting men, they could hear it. The echoing grumble of rolling tanks, the high-pitched whine of power, and the shout from innumerable throats: "Hail HYDRA!"

From his perch above them all Branstein started screaming orders and the soldiers jumped to obey. The great cylindrical batteries of the Eisenkafer glowed even brighter, and the engine inside started to rumble. The guns on the sides rotated to face front, and with a massive grinding noise the main gun lowered until it was directly parallel to the ground. The soldiers closer to the tunnel rushed forward and took up positions behind plating, crates, the wheels of the cannon, any cover they could manage while workers ran for safety and more blasts of HYDRA fire fell upon them like rain.

"Well Captain? Do we sit back and let them destroy each other?" Montgomery asked, poking his head up from behind the pile.

"We're sticking with the plan! Go!" Steve yelled at the same time The Joy jumped over herself and cried out "They are both our enemy! _Forward_!"

And so they charged. Steve threw his shield into the group of soldiers that were taking up position by the crate of grenades they were aiming for, scattering them like marbles that were quickly cut down by The Joy running her tommy gun full speed. Somewhere behind him Steve heard The Fury shouting something in Russian and the roar of his flamethrower, followed by an explosion that nearly knocked him off his feet. He caught himself on the edge of the crate that was their goal, punched out the nearest soldier and looked around, assessing the situation.

Around them the Germans tried to deal with two unexpected attacks as the entire place descended into chaos. Hornets buzzed around, covering the area in a stinging blanket that parted and reformed around any shots. Any enemy trying to shoot at them would be stung, any that tried to avoid or take out the hornets was easy prey for the rest of the team. It was a surprisingly and brutally effective deterrent, and the only ones safe where the ones in range of The Fury's flamethrower. Gabe followed along behind him, ready with a quick hand and eye for anyone who could dodge the fire. Somewhere past all the smoke and flames he could see Dum Dum leading Jacques and Montgomery towards another equipment installation, ducking in and out of cover on the way. Bucky and The Sorrow had made it to the catwalks above the fray, and that splotch of green might have been The End with them.

Above them all Branstein stood on top of his supposed superweapon and screamed fury and hate at all his enemies. He didn't flinch from the wave of fire HYDRA pouring down upon him, the bolts cutting and charring the heavy plate armour all around. Someone in the tank had realised that having the boss up there was perhaps not a good idea and was trying to drag him inside, a kindness Branstein repaid with struggles and more curses. One of his legs fell in suddenly, just in time for a bullet - from The End, most likely - to miss his head and hit his shoulder, making him jerk and clutch at it in pain. At that Branstein was dragged into the massive bulk of the train and disappeared.

"Bad luck! Branstein's alive and inside that thing!" Steve shouted to The Joy while blocking shots fired at Jim and The Fear, both working hard to open the crate. A few men had managed to figure out a way to work against the hornets by having half of them take off their jackets and wave them around while the rest lined up their shots. Steve threw his shield over their cover, aimed so it would bounce off the truck behind them and ricochet into their group.

"Damn!" The Joy responded, then charged at one of the remaining men around their position and threw him to the ground so hard he bounced twice and lay still. "Then we either get inside or blow it up entirely!" She fired at the men knocked around by Steve's shield, some of the bullets bouncing off the shield to wreak even more havoc.

Steve nodded, though either option felt remote. But they had no others, and so he caught his shield and threw it again. "Do you have enough ammo?" he asked The Joy as she was running her gun full speed constantly, the loud rattling almost reaching over the other sounds of fire, explosions, and screams.

She grinned at him, feral. "Don't worry about ammunition! I'll explain later!" So saying she continued to cut down enemy troops.

Jim finally cracked the crate open and threw the top spinning away. Steve thought he heard him mutter something about 'not quite as impressive as the Captain', but it was hard to hear over the noise of everything else. He quickly and efficiently started grabbing grenades, while The Fear threw up some sort of signal to the rest of the Cobras. Steve did what he did best, kept blocking shots, kept throwing his shield at anyone foolish enough to pop their heads up, kept moving.

Jim turned to him and called over the latest impact, "Captain, I've got 'em! Let's-"

That was when HYDRA finished their artillery assault and arrived in earnest. A pair of tanks rolled into view glowing with an eerie inner light, accompanied by dozens of men on the ground and - Steve squinted at what was flying towards them. They looked almost like men in medieval plate armour, their limbs bulky and rounded, and odd spikes on their right shoulders. From their backs extended stiff wings like those of an airplane that blasted that familiar light from the rear. They all carried heavy HYDRA rifles in their arms, and from the safety of the air began to ran down fire on the defenders.

Steve ran over to The Joy. "If we could get us one of those tanks, we'd have a better chance at taking out the Eisenkafer than just on our own," he shouted right into her ear. Though the problem with that plan, Steve thought, was getting the tank in the first place.

She jerked her head in acknowledgement. "Even one of those flying men would be an asset...if we can get them." She suddenly looked upward with a short gasp, then grabbed Steve and flung them both away just in time to avoid a blast from one of the HYDRA tanks. They landed in a heap, cracked and bruised but alive while the spot they had been standing in disappeared in smoke and flying concrete shards. Steve searched through the dust for Jim and The Fear, and thought he saw the latter jump off an enemy's head, then scramble up some loose cabling to the catwalks. Jim was nowhere to be seen, and Steve's heart twisted.

The Joy elbowed him in the stomach, bringing his attention back to the battle. "Listen, they'll probably be focusing on the Eisenkafer as soon as they break through the defense lines - which won't be long." She was right, already the tanks were easily rolling over the regular Germans' hasty defenses. "If we can get there first, we might be able to be in a better position to steal their technology. You ready?" Though she asked, the look on her face said it hadn't been an actual question.

Steve swallowed and nodded. "Yeah, yeah I am. Be good if we could get some of the others for backup, though." He'd worry about what happened to Jim later, right now he had a superweapon to destroy. He cast his eyes around the room, trying to pierce through the smoke and dust and see if anyone was close enough to help them. The Pain and The Fury were too useful as anti-infantry - as HYDRA was now discovering - and Gabe seemed to have volunteered himself to cover them while they were handling the crowds. Bucky and The End were both too far away and more valuable acting as snipers. But Dum Dum and his little group had commandeered themselves a nice set of weapons, and they were close enough that getting to them would at least be possible. He tapped The Joy on the shoulder, pointed at them, the Eisenkafer, and didn't need to say anything.

HYDRA's flying men were zipping around like flies as they rushed to an overturned truck, and Steve held his shield above their heads like an umbrella against a deadly rain. As soon as they were under the half cover the truck's bulk offered The Joy was firing at them, but her bullets bounced off like she had been firing at a fully armoured tank. "Damn, no good! You ever seen these before? How do we beat them?" she asked Steve, as if he had been holding out on her.

Steve shook his head in reply. "Never seen them before in my life." He raised the shield against another blazing bolt, bouncing it off into another flier's wings, making him list and stall out for a moment, though he recovered. "Looks like taking them out is just a matter of heavier firepower."

"That can certainly-" The rest of The Joy's words were cut off when the machine guns on the Eisenkafer started to fire straight across, slicing into HYDRA's flying men, cracking their wings and piercing even their thick armour. One fell to the floor and skidded across it, landing in a tumble by a set of plating that turned out to be concealing a number of German troops, who took the opportunity to set upon him with concentrated fire. A few more fell to the floor while others swept and dodged through the air, faster than the steady machine guns could track and firing back all the while.

So those instalments were functional after all, Steve thought. He'd assumed they were as hasty as the rest of the Eisenkafer, but perhaps Branstein was circumspect enough to not want to fire into a crowd of his own soldiers. Or considering the man's temperament, it was more likely one of his underlings.

In the end, the falling flying men were just something else to watch out for as they made their way to the others. HYDRA troops were running through the hangar now, relying on their heavier armour and superior firepower to overcome any defenses. Steve calculated the pieces of cover between them and the others. A pile of crates, an abandoned chunk of steel, and then they'd be there. He looked up, saw the flying men and machine guns were still occupied with each other and the HYDRA infantry only going to get closer, and tapped The Joy on the shoulder in an unspoken signal.

They made it to the pile of crates all right, even with Steve tossing The Joy over his shoulder so she could fire with both hands while he got them to safety. It was halfway to the plating that a blast - HYDRA, Nazi, or even one of their own, it didn't matter - flung them apart.

Steve rolled along the floor, keeping himself loose. His shoulder was hurting again, not happy about taking that shot earlier and then getting landed on, but nothing seemed broken. He scrambled to his feet and looked around for cover, but all he saw were plumes of smoke and dust. Vague shapes moved around inside them, one coming his way. Steve tensed. There was a possibility they were friends...but it was damn unlikely.

The shape resolved itself into the iron mask and bulky armour of one of the flying men. On the ground, up close, he was a head and half taller than Steve, with a body to match. The mask looked like a sort of gas mask, with large empty glass goggles, an outcropping for a mouth, and a pair of tubes running from that outcropping to the pack on the back. He gave off a humming noise, a strange mechanical grinding just audible under the chaos around them.

The flying man raised his rifle, and Steve didn't give him the chance to fire. He jumped on the pile of armour and slammed his fist right into where his jaw should've been. The metal dented, but held as the man's face turned down towards Steve's, glass eyes glowing with an inner light.

The man shoved back against Steve, knocking him backwards. Steve stumbled, but threw himself forward again. His entire advantage was in melee, the man could keep him away for hours if he could bring his rifle to bear. He pounded on the hardened steel with fists and shield, to no more effect than the first time. Gaps appeared in the armour, but nothing Steve had the time or weapons to take advantage of. But it couldn't go his way forever, and in time the man forced him off and flung him to the ground. Steve looked up at the glowing rifle muzzle and brought his shield up -

- for a bolt that never came. A Nazi soldier hurtled through the smoke and ran straight into the HYDRA agent before he could fire, screaming at the top of his lungs. The HYDRA agent struggled, but the soldier managed to get his rifle's bayonet in the gap in the agent's armour between neck and jaw that Steve had been punching open with a wild stab that poured thick arterial blood out over the armour. The new soldier pressed in further with his bayonet, and the HYDRA agent's knees buckled before the rest of him fell to the floor. The soldier turned to Steve and grabbed his hand to haul him to his feet, babbling a stream of German at him too fast to catch while looking desperately from side to side. The stream of words slowed as Steve got up and the soldier could get a good look at him, then ground to a halt as his jaw dropped and a look of confused consternation overtook his face.

"Captain America?" was the last thing the soldier got out before Steve punched him right in the face. Not too hard - it seemed a bit, well, churlish to break the jaw of someone who'd been trying to help, even if it was a case of mistaken identity - but enough to put him to sleep. The soldier went down over the the wreck of the former flying man and Steve looked around. The smoke still hadn't cleared, but now from behind him and to the right he could hear someone shouting in English. In particular, it sounded like Dum Dum, though he couldn't quite make out the words. That was good enough, and Steve set off in the right direction with shield up and eyes open.

The others, minus the six who had other duties, were piled up behind a mess of former crates, sandbags and plating wedged between the wall and a flatbed truck. Steve made sure to hold his shield out before jumping over the barricade to see that The Joy had made it there before him and was assisting the Commandos in their fight. Montgomery punched him in the shoulder and asked where he had been, and added that they were ready at any time before Steve could answer.

"Right then," Steve said, glancing around and taking in the situation as best he could. If The Joy was there she'd probably already told everyone the score. "Everyone knows the plan?" There were nods all around, even from The Fear, who suddenly dropped in from the ceiling holding onto cables like a spider. "Then you all know what to do! Go!"

The Joy threw out one last clearing blast of fire before they all scrambled over, heading straight for the Eisenkafer. From some armoury Dum Dum had gotten an entire anti-aircraft gun and ran it from the hip at the flying men, shouting with cheerful vigour just loud enough to be heard for them all to come down and get a taste of American-delivered hot lead. The Fear ran along the catwalks above, throwing down anything that could be converted into a weapon to clear their way. One flying man, caught between the Eisenkafer's machine guns and Dum Dum's mobile anti-air, crashed right in front of them, leaving his rifle free to be taken by Jacques.

Right next to the cannon's batteries they found group of German soldiers holed up and fighting against the wave of HYDRA soldiers running over them. Steve paused, trying to decide between avoiding them or just charging straight through. He looked at The Joy, who frowned and jerked her head to indicate that she, at least, was for going around.

"Get down, Captain!"

Steve was tackling people to the ground before he even really registered who had spoken. There was an explosion - a grenade - and when Steve lowered his shield there weren't any enemy soldiers in front of them anymore, but there was a faint buzzing overhead under the Eisenkafer's growls. He looked up, only to see Jim happily waving at him from inside a cloud of hornets. For a minute he just stood there, filled with a mixture of confusion and relief. Jim was alive, good. Jim was flying around in a hornet swarm...good? Could he even control them?

"Pretty handy, huh Captain? Don't worry, they're not stinging me! Now move, I'll keep you covered!" Jim shouted down at them as he took out his rifle. Steve nodded, still a little stunned, but he shook it off quickly. Jim was alive and supporting them. The rest could wait. Steve charged forward, heading for the wheels under the batteries that were right in front of them. A HYDRA soldier busy with his own destructive work turned to face them, but fell to a shot from the sky before he could do more than turn around.

Steve jumped the body and scrambled up the gigantic wheel and on top of the cover, just behind the massive protrusions he still couldn't work out the purpose of. The Joy quickly followed him, and he leaned in close to speak with her while reaching down to help the others up. "Remind me to buy The Pain a drink when this is over! Heck, all your men. We make a good team."

She grinned at him, looking for once cheerful without bloodlust. "Don't count your chickens yet, Captain...but remind me to buy some for your men too. You're not like I thought you'd be."

He shrugged back. She was right, they could all die bringing this thing down, but- "I like to stay optimistic," he said, and grabbed Jacques' hand in his own to haul him up. Just then, the Eisenkafer's slow rumbling rose to a roar like that of a caged beast, howling to be let free. The great wheels began to turn, slowly, and Jacques was only just able to get his feet off the rim before the batteries blazed with pure power and the entire behemoth burst forward in a huge, grinding leap.

Jacques hung for a moment in the air before being torn from Steve's grip by the wind blasting past them, and Steve couldn't do a damn thing without losing his own grip on the edge of the plating. He saw Jacques fall and get caught by Dum Dum, the HYDRA tank whip by, smoke and flames and battle, then they were in the darkness of the tunnel. His hands ached from holding to the edge, his arms from bracing against the plating. The Joy was still somehow holding on next to him, her bandanna whipping around in the wind. There was the horrible screech of metal on metal as the wheels and rails protested the treatment rising all around them, inescapable.

There was a crash and a metallic crunching noise ahead of them, followed by bangs. Steve raised his head and squinted into the darkness ahead, the battery's light not quite banishing it. There was something up ahead of them -

The Joy slammed his head down as one of the HYDRA tanks bounced along the side of the Eisenkafer towards them, tumbling over and over and passing so close by that Steve could feel the treads brush his arm. It tumbled over them and was gone into the distance, more crashing noises following its passage. Similar sounds came from the other side, and on the ground Steve could just make out HYDRA agents on the ground tossed about like broken tin soldiers before the tunnel ended and they were in the open air, being soaked by the rain.

The Eisenkafer's incredible speed was slackening, though not nearly as quickly as it had accelerated. But it was enough that Steve could look up without worrying about being blown away, and has he got his feet under him he looked into the night and took in his surroundings. The rain had started again and drove against them in furious sheets, stymieing clear vision more than a few feet away. Lights sparked in the darkness ahead of them, the moving lights of the flying men, the heavy ground lights of tanks, and in the sky a circling set of lights that could be an airplane.

There was the boom of tanks firing in the distance, and shells exploded against the front of the Eisenkafer. In response, the odd protrusions from the side slid out and unfolded, looking like nothing else but a pair of gigantic arms wielded to the side of a tank, reaching out for the sky.

Steve wiped the water from his eyes and shook his head. "Arms? Are they planning on _punching_ the tanks?"

"Unknown. But I think we should get away from them," The Joy said, and no sooner than she had finished she crouch-walked to the side of the Eisenkafer and began searching around for handholds. Steve followed, low and careful on the slippery metal. The plating was smooth and solid, but this close to the batteries there were regular panels missing - probably open for work and intended to have been closed later. They were little more than indentations in the sheer vertical face before Steve and The Joy, but they still climbed. Digging their fingertips into every crevice and bowed under the driving rain they climbed as swiftly as they could.

They were about halfway up, and even Steve's fingers were going a bit numb from clinging like a tick to the back of a steel dog, when the cannon met the HYDRA tanks and they found out what the arms were for.

Massive blue-edged blades deployed from could be called the forearms, similar to the blade Rittersturm pulled out at the end but bigger, much much bigger. At least 100 feet long, they were large enough to carve new valleys into the earth. Large enough cut a swath through infantry. Large enough to throw tanks into the air, their armour sliced and crumpled.

Steve stared, forgetting his precarious position and the cold rain. "Holy-" Above him he could hear The Joy breathe a "My God..." Steve knew all about artillery bombardment and the destruction it wrecked, but seeing tanks tossed about like toys was something uniquely terrifying. That both could be combined into one machine... An airstrike could still take it out, but they didn't have an airstrike right now. Right now they had a shield and a tommygun.

Still, hanging off the side wouldn't solve anything. Steve tapped at The Joy's foot, and after a brief hesitation she started climbing up again. Soon they reached the top, bracing themselves against the wind and rain. Steve looked doubtfully at the batteries. "Don't think we'll be able to take these out with what we got!" he shouted. "We'll have to go inside!"

The Joy nodded and started moving towards the front, where Branstein had been standing when he was dragged inside. It was slow going, trying to keep balance on the rain-slick steel that rocked under every step. Around them the great blade-arms cut and sliced across ground and sky. The flying men had pulled back a bit to avoid them, but now they swept down in closely regimented flights.

Five men swept over them in a sharp V and Steve brought up his shield on instinct. They seemed to want to concentrate on the Eisenkafer, three firing a concentrated volley at the batteries, two aiming at the joints attaching the arms to the sides. The shots rattled the cannon, but not enough to stop it. Steve stumbled, but kept his balance and continued walking forward. If HYDRA wanted to take out the cannon, they could. As long as they didn't bother them, it was no skin off his back. He'd take care of them afterwards.

Which worked wonderfully until the next flight had three flying men peel off and land with a crash right in front of them, mechanics growling loudly. Steve didn't wait an instant to throw his shield directly at the rightmost one with enough force to make him tilt dangerously to the side - but not quite enough to make him fall. The leftmost fired at him and Steve threw himself backward in a tumble he'd practised hundreds of times - but this wasn't even a muddy battlefield or a burning building, this was wet, slippery metal and his hands slipped out from under him, turning the graceful backflip into a bellyflop.

"Oof!" All the air was pushed out of him by the impact and for a second Steve lay there, listening to the clang of metal on metal. The Joy shouted at him, her voice half concerned and half angry. Steve signalled to show he was all right, scrambled to his feet and caught his shield fast enough to block another shot. The flying men were converging on The Joy, Steve threw his shield to knock off their aim. It worked for two of them, their rifles discharging into the air. The Joy charged the last one and started grappling with him. She wasn't strong enough to do real damage against the armour, but she was agile enough to use him as a shield against his comrades. One of the flying men tried to shoot anyway, and his fire scorched armour enough to expose the wiring.

They couldn't break open the flying men's armour, Steve knew, not while fighting three of them at the same time. The next best thing was... Steve charged and flung himself at the one on the right, hitting him right in the chest and forcing him to stumble backwards with that odd whirring noise they made. Steve didn't let up, shoving and pushing him backward until the flying man stepped back and didn't find metal under his foot. He slipped, his arms waving in the air, and activated his wings, but not soon enough. Steve jumped back and gave him a good solid shoulder charge right to the middle, sending the flying man off the edge of the Eisenkafer and right into machinegun fire with a metallic screech. His wings were torn from his back and Steve couldn't see where he landed.

Steve spun around. The Joy was on the ground, maybe she'd slipped on the slick metal too, but still managing to keep from getting shot or overwhelmed - if barely. Steve ran forward to at least take out the last flying man standing when the flying man was knocked sideways by a bolt of power aimed right at his wings. Another shot hit his head, blowing away the armour there and dragging one last spasmodic jerk out of the man before he lay still. Steve, The Joy, and even the last flying man all looked up to see sweeping down on them another flying man - but this one had Bucky on his back.

On the other side of the Eisenkafer The Joy hauled herself to her feet, ready to resume her fight. Steve started running to help when the flying man followed, getting there before he could do much more than get up on his knees. Up above he saw Bucky and his flying man start to circle and fire, driving off any other HYDRA agents who wanted to interfere. The agent fighting The Joy got up and took a swing at her just as Steve got there, his mechanical buzzing sounding furious. She caught his arm and twisted, using his momentum as part of a shoulder throw. Steve grabbed the flying man's waist and helped throw him to the ground, then kicked him straight over the side. He flew up again, only to get sliced in half by the Eisenkafer's massive swinging blades.

There was a metallic squeal behind Steve, and he turned to see Bucky and his ride land. He stepped forward a little, not quite willing to approach closer. Sure, Bucky had helped, but HYDRA agents didn't just defect. He was going to keep his shield up until he knew what was going on. "Bucky..."

"Hey there, Steve!" Bucky grinned as he got off the flying man's back, though on seeing their faces he gave an awkward squawk and waved his hands defensively. "Don't shoot ma'am, it's just me! Remember? Sergeant Barnes?"

"I remember you," The Joy said coolly, and when Steve checked she was aiming her gun at the new pair. "But who's that with you?"

The flying man spoke then, his voice tinny and muffled from the suit, but even then Steve thought he recognized The Sorrow's voice. He said something Steve didn't understand in Russian, but it definitely wasn't a HYDRA agent in there. Steve relaxed and lowered his shield. Beside him The Joy said something in Russian filled with amused relief back and lowered her weapon as well.

Bucky looked back and forth between them, then shrugged. "Well I didn't catch that, but yes, The Sorrow's in here." He tapped carefully at the flying suit's shoulders. "We managed to down one of these guys without damaging the suit too much, and then he summoned the corpse's spirit and got inside, quick as you please. Pretty amazing, huh?" It was a pretty good trick, Steve had to admit. He never would've thought talking to the dead was that much of a useful battlefield skill, but he hadn't thought controlling hornets would be that good either. Bucky went on. "That was right about when this damn thing took off, so we all got together to follow you. Dum Dum, Montgomery, and The Pain stole one of HYDRA's tanks and drove it out of there, while the rest found a truck and hauled tail. But they couldn't really catch up with this thing when it was moving like it was; last I checked they were cleaning up HYDRA by the base."

Steve looked backward out of habit, but couldn't see anything over the glare of the batteries. They were probably too far away anyway. Right now he needed to figure out how to stop the Eisenkafer. "Right now our best bet of stopping this thing is probably to get inside before HYDRA comes back. If we're not around to make targets maybe they'll go back to trying to blow it up."

"Sergeant Barnes, do you think your gun can break the lock on the hatch?" The Joy asked.

"Only one way to find out," Bucky replied, and headed towards the hatch. The rest followed.

When they got to the hatch, The Sorrow raised a hand and held still for a moment. Then he pointed at two points. "Fire there. Those, they are weakly welded and will trigger the emergency release. Not on the plans, but one of the engineers believed strongly in them." Steve gave him a curious look as Bucky got to work and The Sorrow tilted his head when he gave his reply. "The workers are perhaps getting a bit...disillusioned."

Steve supposed he couldn't blame them. Bucky carefully aimed his rifle at the indicated spots point-blank and fired, and dragged the hatch open when it popped up. From inside they could hear the rush of feet and shouted orders, along with what sounded like a spirited argument. Bucky looked at the other three and grinned wide. "Well then, who wants to go first?"

Steve and The Joy jumped in at the same time.

They landed in the midst of chaos. Soldiers lined the walls, looking out the narrow view-slits and calling reports to the operators who twisted controls and checked gauges. A table wedged into a corner held piles of ballistics tables and slide rules, along with a set of furiously calculating men. On both sides three strong men wrestled with a control bar like rowers on a Roman trireme, presumably running the arms. And in the centre of it all an officer with a particularly fancy uniform raged at a considerably dishevelled Branstein, who raged right back.

The Joy shouted an order to surrender as Bucky and The Sorrow dropped down behind them, which did have the effect of interrupting the argument. The fancy uniform officer spun around and immediately pulled a gun, a regular bullet-shooting pistol, which was easily knocked out of his hand with the shield. Steve followed it up with a quick rushing uppercut, but was foiled when the officer lightly jumped back and let loose with a picture-perfect flurry of jabs.

Steve pulled back himself, taking up a defensive posture and watched the officer jump into...a boxing stance? He went up on his toes, brought his fists up, and began swiftly feeling out Steve's defences with quick strikes. On his face was a wild grin, and he said with some pride, "I learned in school, yes? Now...let's see what you have, America!"

Around them The Joy cut down the three men controlling the Eisenkafer's arms on her side, sending operators and sentries scattering in panic. On the other side Bucky took out one for himself, then was rushed by the other two. He clubbed one upside the head with the heavy rifle, leaving the other to be blocked by The Sorrow. The calculators, somehow, kept up their work, though with noticeable extra speed and desperation. Branstein himself fell backward, frantically looking around and yelling for help, for support, for all those cowards to come back.

Steve blocked the officer's next few strikes with his shield, then lashed out with a left-handed punch aimed at the officer's torso. The officer danced away, of course, which left him neatly vulnerable to Steve sweeping his shield around in a wide swing aimed directly at his head. Somehow the officer managed to twist backward and slide under the strike like his back was made of rubber and giving him the opportunity for a sharp kick at Steve's knee before slipping away again.

"A kick? That's not in the standard boxing rules," Steve said as he tested out his knee. A little pain, but that would clear up. He could still walk on it and that was the important part. He dropped his shield to cover his body, then had to step back to avoid another low kick.

"Neither is a shield!" The officer dropped the offensive for a bit, settling back on his heels just a hair's breath out of range. "How about throwing it away and we fight like men?"

Steve grinned. "Sure, I'll throw it away." He pulled his arm back and flung the shield in a curving arc calculated to hit the officer right in his smug face. Standing still like he was, there was no way he could avoid it.

It would have worked perfectly if the entire train hadn't lurched suddenly to the right, making Steve stumble and the shield slice neatly behind the officer, who happily took the chance to rush forward and slam a haymaker right into Steve's ribcage. Steve lurched backward and landed hard on a control deck, cracking his head on the wall and lying there pressed against it by the force of the turn. The officer walked forward and started to pummel Steve's torso with a punishing barrage of blows.

Steve jerked and kicked out, missing by a mile. The bastard must've known a curve was coming...it made sense once he thought about it. They'd need a closed track for testing, and a long one for the kinds of speeds the Eisenkafer could put out or they'd go flying all over Germany. Of course there's be a curve, and right now they were probably headed straight back to Nichts Garten. At least meeting back up with the others would be easy. Steve snarled and blocked the officer's fist with his palm just as he went in for another blow. He was rewarded with a snapping sound from the fist and a bitter cry of pain from the officer. Steve grabbed onto the fist and pulled the officer forward, and this time his knee connected quite solidly with the officer's stomach. Steve followed it up by getting away from the wall and using his new-found leverage to throw the officer up against the wall, hard enough to knock him out.

Wincing slightly from the pain, Steve took another look around. Most of the remaining sentries and operators were lying dead on the floor or collapsed over their controls. The last one still standing just then took a short, quick flight into the calculator's table courtesy of The Joy, sending papers and slide rules flying. One of the calculators stumbled away from the broken table holding the paper he had just finished scribbling on and ran to a telephone on the wall. He grabbed off the hook and managed to yell a series of numbers into it before Bucky cut him down, leaving the handset to dangle in the air. The Sorrow was busy over a set of controls, throwing levers in various directions and snapping them off with a quick twist as the train came out of its swift curve.

Branstein himself was crouched right across from Steve, one hand clasped in front of him, the other handing limp at his side, and looking remarkably like a cornered animal. His formerly slick hair was wild and falling in his eyes, and his suit was torn in multiple places. His eyes met Steve's for a moment, and at once he burst forward in a desperate run for the ladder leading outside. Steve cried out, but just as he moved to intercept Branstein the entire rail cannon shook as a thunderously loud boom shook the air around them, loud enough to force everyone to cover their ears in a futile attempt to block out the endless noise. They must have fired the main cannon, Steve realised, barely able to think through the crushing pressure. That had to have been the calculator's message, the firing coordinates for - what? The only thing to aim at was their own fort!

Eventually the noise and pressure relented, leaving them all with painfully ringing ears. Steve winced and looked up to find Branstein shaking his head and rubbing blood away from his nose. He jerked away when he saw Steve looking at him and made another attempt for the ladder. Steve tried to go after him, but tripped over a fallen body and the precious few seconds spent righting himself gave Branstein just enough time to scrabble and claw his way up and into the storm still raging outside.

"Damn! Again!" The Joy said and ran after him, the others in hot pursuit.

"He's just a scientist and you're having this much trouble keeping an eye on him? Some supersoldier," Bucky said to Steve as he climbed up the ladder.

Steve cuffed him on the ankle. "I was taking out that officer. What were you up to?" Bucky coughed and declined to reply.

Outside it was still all howling wind and pouring rain. Black scorch marks on the hull stood out in the blue-white glare of the batteries, which had some noticeable cracks themselves - though they were still glowing hot and rumbling along. One of the massive arms was pointed to the sky like an athlete on a victory lap, the other dragged along the ground, tearing up everything as it went. As the group got out and stood on top of the Eisenkafer the entire cannon shuddered, then with the sound of tearing metal the dragging arm broke away and spun off into the night.

Branstein walked ahead of them, watching the sky, seemingly oblivious to how his precious superweapon was maimed. "Hahah, look! Look!" he cried, pointing to the heavens. "Look at those snakes get what they deserve!"

Steve looked up to where he was pointing and saw the lights of the HYDRA plane tilt and dip, then go into a sudden fall, trailing sparks as it went. "Wait...was that what you were firing at?" Hitting a moving plane, from a moving cannon, just after coming out from a curve...that was near impossible.

Beside him Bucky gave a low whistle. "We should've captured that calculator, if he could come up with the numbers for that."

Branstein spun around, grinning his mad grin. "Of course! The most accurate shelling! Machine guns to destroy the infantry! Blades to knock away tanks! I told you, this is the ultimate weapon!"

"That's why it has arms?" Steve asked. "But it's still a rail cannon, you're not going to be able to get it anywhere that doesn't have a railway." Like, for instance, England. Or America. That seemed like a bit of a flaw in the 'ultimate weapon' to Steve.

"Idiot!" Branstein sneered. "Would you give it legs? So it could _walk_ around Europe?"

That hadn't been Steve's point at all, but there also didn't seem to be much point in arguing. Not when as they watched the HYDRA plane dipped lower, almost low enough to touch before racing ahead and smashing into the side of the mountain in a massive conflagration too bright to look at. Branstein laughed exultantly at the sight, cursing HYDRA and rejoicing in their fall. He seemed half dazed in triumph as he walked forward and shook his fist at the heavens.

Then the entire mountain exploded in blinding light.

Amid the cries of shock and roar of falling rock Steve shook his head and tried to make sense of the situation. "That couldn't have been us, we don't have the power for that. So-"

"HYDRA, right?" The Joy said, her face almost disturbingly calm. "That was their real purpose with the infantry, to get in and blow up the entire base while their heavy weapons took on the Eisenkafer outside. A very sensible plan."

Steve didn't like to admit to being smoked by HYDRA, but that looked like it was the case. While they'd been running around trying to take out the Eisenkafer, HYDRA had ruined any chance the Nazis had of using their technology in the war. "Hope none of ours got caught in that."

"More importantly, sir, is that the crash is right in front of us and I destroyed the brakes," The Sorrow interjected, sounding strangely happy about it. "I also told the engine crew to increase speed without limit. We perhaps have...five minutes."

Steve gulped, then shook the surprise out of his head. "Capture Dr. Branstein and get out of here! Now!" he barked, and ran forward after the scientist with The Joy alongside him. Behind him he could hear Bucky saying "you could've told us!" and The Sorrow's "But I did!" reply.

A shot stopped the forward charge. Steve skidded on the metal, holding his shield up against any bullets. From somewhere - it must've been the officer, that's what he had been clutching - Branstein had found a pistol, and was pointing it right at them. He spoke, and his voice now held no triumph, just a furious determination. "I won't allow it."

"Allow what?" Steve asked as he edged forward, stopped by another bullet aimed at his feet.

"I won't allow it. I won't allow myself to be used by the enemy!" He screamed out the last and the pistol shook in his hand as he did. "I used my mind to benefit my country! I joined with Schmidt to create weapons that would place the entire world at our feet! But he, he betrayed us! He would burn Germany to the ground and rule over the ashes! I would not allow it! I ran, and began work to defeat him and fulfil the dream I had seen! We will be great!"

"Commendable loyalty," The Joy said dryly. "But we have our own mission, and we will not abandon it now."

"It's not loyalty, it's madness!" Steve shouted. "Your own leaders are ruining your country! Look around at what your war has done!" He'd been across Europe, he'd seen the burned villages, the masses of the dead, the lines of refugees, the starving children. Dr. Erskine had been driven out of his own country by men like Branstein, and who knew how many people hadn't been able to pull the money or connections to get out. "A truly great country wouldn't need to drag all the world to hell just so they can make themselves bigger! You could make sure everyone, _everyone_, got a roof over their heads and enough to eat! You could use your precious mind to make machines that help people! That would be great! You're just a bunch of bullies who like hurting people!" He thought he heard The Joy murmur something about how even twisted loyalty was still loyalty, but couldn't hear it over the storm inside and out.

"Thee minutes!" Called The Sorrow. The mountain was getting close now, looming up like a mass of great burning teeth, ready to devour them whole.

Branstein sneered at him. "All countries struggle amongst each other for dominance. It's the rules of nature! Why should we not seek to overcome the weak? War is inevitable, so all that matters is to win!"

"And now you're going to lose," said The Joy as she walked forward. "Enough of this. You're coming with us." Branstein raised the pistol and Steve got ready to throw his shield.

Instead Branstein brought the gun to his own head. "I won't allow it," he said one last time, and fired.

The Joy's mouth twisted in bitter regret as Branstein fell backward, his body lost under his superweapon's unstoppable charge. "Mission failure. Damn." She turned back to the group with one last shake of her head. "We don't have much time. The Sorrow, can you carry all of us?"

"I can get us to the ground. Anything else is luck." He paused for a moment. "Two minutes."

The distinctive wail of an emergency siren floated out of the still-open hatch. "Someone must've noticed that 'full speed ahead' is pretty dumb when you're heading back to base," Bucky said and he moved next to Steve. "Bit late, though."

"Hurry up or it will be too late for us too," Steve said as he grabbed Bucky around the waist and hauled him over to The Sorrow, ignoring Bucky's protests about not being the one who got into an argument here. The Sorrow wrapped one arm around Steve and one around The Joy, holding them all tight against his chest. He paused for a second, just on the edge, then lept into the air and flew away in a blaze of light.

Behind them the Eisenkafer collided with the burning wreck of the HYDRA plane, tumbling off the tracks and skidding into the side of the mountain with a horrible, tearing crash that sent sparks and shrapnel flying into the air high enough to brush the ruined mountain peaks. The batteries ripped apart with a sound almost like glass and spewed cold lightning over the wreckage, dancing between the burning twin burning hulks of metal and scarring all it touched. The flames grew to the sky, defying all of nature's attempts to lay them to rest and casting their hellish flickering over the countryside.

The flight away from the wreck was wet, cold, and terrifying. The flying suit's wings were shorting out, sending pops and sparks into the night as they lurched and rolled through the air. The curved metal of the suit's arm dug into Steve's stomach and his hands cramped from trying to hold Bucky up. The trees and rocks ahead of them were only intermittently illuminated by the flash and fire from the wreck of the Eisenkafer, just glimpses of massive branches and boulders and then they were gone into the darkness.

Bucky shouted "Get ready, we're about to hit the trees!" just before a flash showed a massive branch right in front of them. The Sorrow listed hard to the right to avoid it, there was a terrible crack, and the rest was a bone-shaking fall over, under, and through the foliage until they slammed straight into the ground.

Steve caught up against a rock with an impact he'd be lucky to walk away from with just bruises. He lay there panting, still holding on to Bucky and waited for the world to stop whirling around like a Coney Island rollercoaster. Slowly the forest settled down around him and the pain in his sides and back subsided. Steve pushed himself up on one arm, spat out his mouthful of mud, and looked around. On the ground the forest looked a lot like it did from the air: dark and wet. He prodded at Bucky with a knee. "You still alive?"

"Almost wish I wasn't, after that fall," Bucky replied with a groan. "Don't think anything's broken, at least, your shield took most of the impact. You see the others around anywhere?"

Steve swung his head around, searching for anything that looked like a human figure in the dark and rain. "Don't see them...but they can't be too far away." He levered himself upright enough to sit against the rock after wiggling his shield arm out from under Bucky. Bucky kept lying there, apparently too tired to move just yet. That was fine. It didn't look like anyone was coming after them, probably everyone that cared was either back at the wreck or getting as far away as possible. He took another look around and started calling. "Joy! Sorrow! Can you hear me? Respond! Joy! Sorrow!"

"Here!" A clear, feminine voice called from a short distance ahead of them. "The flying suit was damaged and The Sorrow is currently immobile! Your status?"

"Nothing broken!" Steve shouted back and dropped his voice to talk with Bucky again. "How about it, Bucky? Think you can walk?"

"Yeah, just gimme a minute," he said and dragged himself more or less upright. He sat like that for a moment, then shook his head and pushed himself to his slightly wobbly feet.

"Hold your position! We're coming!" Steve shouted in The Joy's direction. He scrambled up himself, caught Bucky when it looked like he might fall over, and together they stumbled off into the dark. A small blue light blinked into existence ahead of them and they went for it, tripping over falling branches and sliding in the mud, but never taking their eyes off the tiny guiding star.

The Joy was kneeling next to The Sorrow working on getting one of the arms off the flying suit. The small light turned out to be part of the pack on the suit's back, the only part of it that seemed to still have power. Steve and Bucky joined her, and in the dim light cracked open the entire front of the flying suit to drag The Sorrow out.

"My thanks," he said, soothing back his hair and adjusting his glasses. "It was considerably easier to get in than out." He looked ruefully at the broken scraps of steel and pipe that had almost become a coffin. He sat up a little straighter, seemingly struck by a thought, and began to dig through the remains of the suit before coming up with the trackless radio. "I am not sure if it will work...but perhaps we should try and make our report."

"I'm impressed it's still mostly in one piece." Steve took the radio and tapped at it. Nothing was obviously broken, but if anything on the inside was busted no one besides Howard would ever get it working again. He squinted and fiddled with the knobs, and got a loud burst of static that made him drop the radio in shock.

The Sorrow picked it up and started playing with the knobs himself, only getting more static. He said something spirited at it in Russian and twisted the knobs again, to no avail. Steve banged on the back of it in the ever-present hope that hitting something would make it work better.

Amazingly, the static dropped to a mild buzzing. Bucky clapped Steve on the shoulder while The Sorrow spoke into the radio. "Hello? This is The Sorrow of the Cobra Unit. Please respond."

The radio popped and whistled, but those soon resolved into Peggy's voice speaking at a rapid clip. "Hello, this is Agent Peggy Carter of the SSR. Do you read me? Respond."

"Peggy!" Steve said, then caught himself. "I mean, Agent Carter. This is Captain America, we read you."

"Steve? Thank god!" There was a break in the transmission as the signal descended into static again. When it cleared Peggy said "Captain, what is your situation?"

"Dr. Branstein is dead. The superweapon Eisenkafer and the base Nichts Garten are destroyed. Myself, The Joy, Sergeant Barnes, and The Sorrow are all alive and unwounded. Status of other team members is unknown. We got separated in the battle."

"We received a report from them a few minutes ago. They're all confirmed alive." Steve breathed a small sigh of relief at Peggy's words. He hadn't really thought that they'd all die, but it was good to have confirmation.

"This is The Joy. We're currently in the Dunklenwald forest. Specific position is unknown. At first light we will meet with the rest of our teams and move towards your position. Is this acceptable?"

"Acknowledged. I have no orders to counteract that course of action. Haste is encouraged. Get out before the enemy finds you." Peggy paused for a bit, then continued, now less clipped and military. "I'm sure you'll hear this as soon as you get back to base, but let me be the first to say it: Good work, everyone. You've struck a considerable blow for the Allies today, and I thank you for it. Not capturing Branstein is regrettable, but I'm sure it couldn't be helped, and at least now he won't be making any more weapons for Hitler."

Steve grinned, unable to help a surge of pride at her words. "Thank you, Agent. We'll be seeing you soon. Over."

"Over." The radio crackled with more static until The Sorrow turned it off.

"Well, that's that." Bucky leaned back and stretched, his back popping with a few loud cracks. "Nothing left to do but wait for dawn so we can get out of here."

"Shouldn't be too long," Steve said. It was dark when he and The Joy had gone into Nichts Garten, and they couldn't have been there for more than six hours or so. Pretty soon the sky would start lightening. "But you're welcome to take a nap...if you think you need one."

"Tch. Maybe I will. Get some rest after being next to you all night." Bucky said, but made no move to lie down. They all kept awake, watching the forest until dawn.

* * *

Finally the sun came up and cast its weak, watery light over the landscape. The storm had mostly blown over, leaving a few clouds and the smell of wet earth in its wake. A few birds chirped their songs to the first light, apparently undisturbed by the previous night's destruction. The trees dripped onto the ground, splashing the humans with cold water.

Steve pushed himself onto his feet and stretched, cracking his back and trying to work the kinks out after another night on a forest floor. Beside him Bucky groaned, and The Sorrow patted him on the shoulder in commiseration. No one had signalled them during the night, and they had been undisturbed by the enemy. Not really surprising, Steve figured anyone that could walk would be in retreat back to anywhere that hadn't exploded.

The Joy dislodged The Sorrow from her shoulder and stood up too, looking around for the nearest path out. It wasn't hard to see, a banner of smoke flew over the horizon, marking exactly where they wanted to go. Steve gathered up the remains of the flying suit and carried them out. Howard would probably be pretty interested in it, once they got back. None of them said much. It didn't seem like there was that much to say. The mission was complete, and now all they had to do was get home in one piece. Steve did ask The Sorrow if he could tell anything about the situation from where they were; he got a shrug and a soft "many died" in return.

Following the path of wreckage they had left last night brought them to a set of train tracks, following those got them to the battlefield. There the ravens were already enjoying their morning feast and the smell of blood and smoke overwhelmed everything else. The sun rose higher and showed tanks laying scattered about and bent at odd angles, many caught in newly made gouges in the earth too deep to see the bottom. All there was to hear was the distant clangs of settling metal and the ravens' caws. And a blood-curdling scream.

Steve burst into a run and quickly left the rest behind. Chances were, it wasn't one of his men. Chances were, it wasn't one of the Cobras either. But there was that tiny, infinitesimal chance...

The scream faded into pained yelping and quieted, but now that he was closer to whoever it was Steve could hear arguing in mixed German and English, combined with the kind of soft cries you only heard out of the badly wounded. He jumped over a fallen HYDRA soldier, hopped his way up the treads of a tank, and came over the new ridge just in time to see Dum Dum punch a Nazi soldier right in the mouth.

The soldier fell back on his rear, spitting out blood and teeth. The three men behind him with guns didn't move, either to go to his aid or fire their rifles, though there was a certain nervousness in their sidelong looks that said they were close to trying something, be it violence or surrender. Behind them was a pair of soldiers leaning on each other just to stand, and behind them four men were on the ground being attended to by a medic covered in blood up to his elbows. It must have been one of those who screamed.

Steve slid down the pile of mud and dirt, careful not to drop any parts of the flying suit, and trotted over to listen to Dum Dum rant. "...you pin-headed, ninny-brained wack-a-loons! Do you see the guns we have? Do you see the man over there with the flamethrower? Do you see the guns you _don't_ have? Don't think I can't see how half of those lights are completely dead, you can't fool me with your puffed up chests and pretend courage! Now me and my friends here, we want to get out of this stinkin' mud just as much as you do, so unless you want to be finely roasted sides of lead tenderized steak, you'll get your pointy heads out of your farting asses and lay down your arms!"

Steve trotted up the the group and Gabe gave him a quick nod before he started what was probably a fairly loose translation. Dum Dum didn't notice him, still panting and glaring at the Germans, who did seem pretty cowed after all that fire. The one Dum Dum had punched, probably the leader, pushed himself up off the ground and glared right back, wiping blood off his mouth. Steve didn't like that look, and dropped the flying suit on the ground in order to get his shield ready. Maybe the rest of the men would be more inclined to give up once their leader was out - or maybe one of the men would start an argument with his leader, complete with lots of pointing back at the groaning and whimpering wounded and shaking his rifle. The leader grimaced but a look at the wounded made him drop his head, and at a gesture the three men tossed their rifles at the Commandos feet.

The leader stepped forward, and Steve absently noted that under all the filth and grime he seemed to have the same rank insignias as the man whose uniform Steve had stolen earlier. He stood in front of Steve with almost painful stiffness, only letting his eyes move left and right. But all that didn't hide the look of contempt in his eyes when he looked at Gabe, and that dropped any thoughts Steve had about making this easy on him. The HYDRA agents usually accepted it - when they could be captured instead of swallowing their cyanide pills, at least - but the Nazis just couldn't seem to get it through their heads that their best chance for good communication was the black man and that maybe, just maybe that accorded a measure of respect.

"Captain!"

Steve shook himself out of his thoughts and turned to see The Joy sliding down the same ridge he'd used to come marching over. "What's the situation? Prisoners?"

Steve looked back at the prisoner's leader, who seemed more than a bit startled by The Joy's sudden appearance, and remembered some of the propaganda about women he'd seen around occupied Europe. "Yes, we were just taking their surrender." Steve paused and made a show of looking up into the air, like he'd just remembered something. "Actually...you know, all this time and I never actually asked your rank. It's got to be at least Captain, right?"

The Joy looked at him with narrowed eyes, clearly suspicious about this sudden line of questioning. "Yes, and?"

"And from what you said about being part of the SAS, you've probably been at this longer than I have." Steve gave her his best innocent all-American boy smile combined with a subtle head movement to the prisoner and Gabe. "Really, as the highest-ranking officer, shouldn't you be taking the surrender here?"

She blinked at him, then took another look at the prisoner, who now looking a good deal more confused and annoyed. She looked back at Steve, not quite smiling, but with a faint hint of amusement in her eyes. "That does sound correct. But," she turned to Gabe, "I'm afraid I don't speak a word of German. I'll be relying on you to give a full and accurate translation, Private Jones."

Gabe threw out a picture-perfect salute and a sharp "Yes, ma'am!" It was hard to tell, but the tight lines around his mouth betrayed a hidden grin.

Steve barely bit back his protest that yes, she did speak German, as he realised what game she was playing and then had to resist breaking out into laughter and giving the whole thing away. He never would've expected a woman who gave such a stern and straight-laced impression would have this sort of devil in her. He shook his head and said "While you're both taking care of that, I'll handle everything else." The Joy nodded acknowledgement, then turned her attention back to the prisoners.

Steve gestured at Dum Dum and walked them far enough away to not disturb the others. "What's the situation, Corporal?"

Dum Dum scratched at his chin for a bit before replying. "Well, we lost the tank we stole last night, but kept the truck. Jim and Jacques, and that weird bee guy, are working on it over there," he gestured off to the right where Steve could see The Pain helping prop up a truck that had a pair of legs, presumably Jim's, sticking out from under it, then Dum Dum continued. "It's taken some wear and tear, but with a bit of luck we can drive it out of here. The Fear and The End are off looking for more survivors. And as you can see, myself, Gabe, Montgomery and The Fury were all taking care of that lot over there."

"Excellent work. Anyone injured?"

"Nothing worth complaining about. Scrapes and bruises, Jacques got winged but we managed to tie it up. Was figuring I'd try and...persuade that medic to take a look once he gave up on performing miracles."

Steve glanced back at the medic, who was wrapping a bandage around a stump of a leg. The man with the stump jerked and let out another sharp scream before falling back limp. "We'll see. I'll go over and see how they're doing with the truck."

"Aye aye, you do that now." Dum Dum sketched a salute and went back to watching the prisoners. Steve jogged over to the truck, with a quick wave for Bucky and The Sorrow who had just caught up with all the rest of them. Bucky waved back, then said something to The Sorrow. All Steve could catch was something like 'feel out-?', which made The Sorrow look surprised and answer 'no?'

The closer Steve got to the truck, the louder the banging and cursing got. By the time he was there and helping be a human jack himself it sounded like Jim was about to just start hitting things and seeing if it worked. "Wrench!" he yelled from underneath, and a swarm of hornets flew it to him. "Thanks! Damn, wish I..." The rest was lost under more banging and a few creaking noises, then Jim yelled again. "Try it now!"

The engine rumbled, then cut out in a series of gutted croaks. "No good!" Jacques called from inside the cab.

"Motherfucking piece of shit! German engineering my _ass_, this is fucking..." The stream of curses was temporarily lost under a set of squeaking, screwing noises that eventually faded away. "Okay, how about now?"

This time the engine turned over and coughed to life. "Perfect!"

"Fucking finally! Okay, lemme get out and lay her down nice and gentle," Jim said while wiggling his way out. Steve set the truck down and walked over to where Jim was failing to wipe off the grease and mud.

"So, we've got reliable transportation?" He said with a gesture at the truck.

"Huh? Captain! Yeah, the truck's working as well as it's gonna. Wouldn't call it reliable, but I did what I could," Jim said. He gave up on getting clean and stood up, stretching out his arms. "Good to see you again, by the way. We saw you heading off on that thing, but couldn't catch up."

"But with our strength, we defeated the enemy!" The Pain stomped into the conversation, every limb radiating intensity. "I didn't fear for your safety, as you are clearly worthy of standing with The Joy." He shoved his hand at Steve and gave him a firm handshake. Steve gave as good as he got, and was pretty sure he managed to keep his smile loose and natural to boot. Well, it wasn't like The Pain was bad, just...very forceful.

"Good work, all of you. Now, we can start loading up the truck and-"

"Captain!" The Fury interrupted, leaving his post by the prisoners and coming over to talk, his words short and careful. "We have enemy's surrender at last. Stubborn fuckers!" The last was probably the most comfortable The Fury had ever sounded in English, and he spat on the ground before continuing. "One says there are supplies still in base. There is a room outside with food and medicine." He gestured a little to the left of the mechanical wrecks. "Medic wishes to have them, The Joy approves. Is truck working?"

"Yes, we just got it running." Steve rubbed at his forehead and shrugged. They could use the supplies, actually, and it would be less for anyone that can scavenging later. He couldn't say he wasn't worried about Jacques, and some medical alcohol and bandages would be a benefit even without the medic's help. "Jim, what do you say to taking this thing out for a test run?"

"No problem," Jim said with a cocky grin. "Hey Jacques, out of the driver's seat! We're going on a supply run and I'm driving! The Fury, you come too. Sounds like you know where it is." He ran off and scrambled into the cap, The Fury following along and taking shotgun. Steve and The Pain loaded themselves into the back, ready to help with carrying.

The ride was bumpy and Steve had to get out and push the truck over more than one suspicious, dirty heap, but the the information proved good and they did find a little supply cache nestled into the side of the mountain, miraculously unblocked by the remains of either the plane or the Eisenkafer. "Must've been where they dumped anything that wasn't going straight onto the Eisenkafer, just before the end," Steve mused as they sorted through the small room, and everyone else agreed. Half the room was collapsed, the supplies buried under tons of rock and concrete, but the few intact crates proved to have the promised rations and medical supplies. Further back there was also a bunch of blankets and even a box of neatly pressed uniforms. Steve grabbed a couple on the rationale that someone needed to drive them out of there, and that someone would need a disguise. Just as long as it wasn't him again.

They headed back after loading up the most valuable crates in the truck, leaving behind the toilet paper and lightbulbs. Steve cleaned out and wrapped up the long, bloody streak in Jacques' side as they drove back, trying to hold them both steady over the lurching ups and downs. He got called every name under the sun for it, but when he was done the wound was more-or-less neatly wrapped and would at least hold until they could get back to a real doctor. Jacques was stiffly putting his jacket back on when the truck ground to a halt and they all piled out.

The rest were waiting for them, including The Fear and The End, who didn't seem to have found anyone to bring back. Steve met with the Joy and confirmed that they had found the supplies and taken the useful ones with them, she told him that they were playing host to a Sergeant Schneider and his men and a combination of interrogation and scouting had revealed what seemed to be a good road back to allied territory.

"Which just leaves the problem of who gets to drive," Steve said. "Is there anyone besides you in the Cobras that speaks decent German?"

The Joy raised an eyebrow at the 'besides you', but she didn't protest. "Just The Fear. The Sorrow can try, but his accent is worse than in English."

"And the Germans aren't exactly recruiting from the Soviet Union," Steve said. Gabe was always out of the question, and Steve really wanted to avoid a repeat of getting caught out by Branstein. "I got a few uniforms from the supply cache, let's see if any fit The Fear. Anything else we need to do here?"

There wasn't, besides clearing a path for the truck as best they could. One of the larger uniforms did fit The Fear, and even if his wrists and ankles stuck out no one would probably notice. Quickly everyone turned to the necessary work for getting the hell out.

Pretty soon they finished loading everyone into the truck, laying the injured prisoners on the floor with folded jackets under their heads and pressing anyone that could at least sit up against the sides. They were packed in tight, 'arse to elbows' as Montgomery would say, and there was a lot of pushing and shoving to get everyone settled in. Steve ended up between Bucky and The Joy, Bucky's chin digging into his shoulder and The Joy regularly elbowing him as she cleaned her gun. Sometimes Steve almost wished he was smaller. He wiggled himself down a bit and sighed.

The medic - Muller, Steve thought, vaguely recalling Gabe calling him that - sat in the middle of the injured, wrapping bandages, adjusting bloodsoaked gauze pads, wiping away filth, doing whatever he could before they started moving. Gabe sat against the wall nearest to him, ready to translate if he needed something. This meant he was right next to Sergeant Schneider, who didn't look happy about the arrangement at all. He edged away from Gabe as much as the press of bodies would allow and glared when it barely bought him a half a foot of space. Gabe just gave him a nice big smile in return. Steve kept an eye on them. If Schneider made a wrong move...but he seemed to have shifted his strategy to checking up on his men and pointedly ignoring every non-German in the truck.

Dum Dum broke open one of the cases of rations they'd lifted from the ruins of Nichts Garten as the truck jolted into movement, with The Sorrow and Montgomery helping pass them around. The rations were passed from hand to hand, and the occupants of the truck settled down to eating, napping, or staring quietly at the opposing wall. Muller finished his grim work and took the one open space against the walls, flopping into the tiny gap between Gabe and Schneider with a sigh that was less a conscious exhalation and more air forced out by the impact. He was asleep in seconds, slumped over and drooling on Schneider's shoulder while he and Gabe tried to work their way out from under him. It didn't work that well.

The Joy finished cleaning her gun and rested it on her knees. Now they were out of battle, Steve took a careful look at it. It looked like just an ordinary tommygun, exactly like the ones the army handed out to everyone. There was nothing unusual about it at all. But he could swear she hadn't reloaded once during the entire battle and for the life of him Steve couldn't figure it out.

She must have noticed his staring and looked up at him. "Something wrong, Captain?"

"Just wondering. You said not to worry about ammo in the fight and you'd explain later." He shrugged as best he could without making Bucky bite his tongue off. "Well, it's later."

She smiled at him, a trace of smug pride in her expression. "It's simple. The internal feed mechanism is in the shape of an infinity symbol. Therefore, I have unlimited ammo." There was absolutely no trace of irony or humour in her voice.

Steve considered this, decided that it made about as much sense as anything else that had happened since he met the Cobras, and nodded solemnly. "That's pretty handy, all right. Does his," he gestured over at The Pain, who was sleeping a bit further down, "have the same modification?"

"Of course not." The Joy looked at him like she was a teacher with a bright child who had just asked if the sky was green. "His is made of bees."

"Of...course."

"Your turn," she said and brushed her fingers along the edge of his shield. "When I blocked that missile I didn't feel the impact at all, like nothing had happened. How'd they manage that?"

"It's made of vibranium." Steve could never keep the pride out of his voice when he described his shield, and why should he? Howard had outdone himself with it. "It's a rare metal that completely absorbs all vibrations, so I can take any blow and never even feel it. And because of that, it's completely indestructible." He held it up for inspection.

The Joy frowned and tapped at it. "Completely indestructible? Does such a thing even exist? Anything can be broken, given the time and means."

Steve held his tongue and did not point out that his shield was based on solid scientific principles and those scientific principles said it was indestructible. It was completely unlike twisting a feed mechanism to magically spit out unlimited ammo. Instead he said, "That's what Howard said, and he hasn't been proven wrong yet."

She didn't look like she completely accepted that explanation, but she didn't question further about it. She settled back down next to The Sorrow, who took a curious look at Steve's shield himself.

They rode along in silence after that, save for a few whispered conversations and the choked moans of the wounded. Steve closed his eyes and listened, half-dreaming in a daze, when Bucky spoke up. "So...what are you planning on doing after the war?"

Steve blinked and opened his eyes to see Bucky leaning over him and talking to The Joy and The Sorrow. He pulled his head down from the wall and rubbed at his neck while waiting for the reply.

"Not just be a politician's daughter, if you were wondering." The Joy's tone was heavily sardonic, and Bucky winced a bit and mumbled an apology in response. The Joy shrugged and added, "My father's dead anyway."

After that she paused and stared at the floor before continuing, lips pressed into a thin line. "Once the war is over...I've barely thought about it. I can't just stop being a soldier. My duty, my mission, my loyalty - it's all I am."

Steve nodded along, knowing exactly how she felt. 'What will you do when this is all over' was a common topic among the Commandos, and one he never knew how to answer. He hadn't really had a life before the army, not one he could go back to now in any case. He'd never wish for the war to be continued, he just couldn't quite picture a life beyond it. He had vague visions of going back to Brooklyn, eating real food and strolling down the streets with Bucky and Peggy, but nothing like a career. "Yeah, I understand. At least the army won't disappear once the war is over. We'll find something to do," he said. It would probably be a lot harder for a woman to stay in the army in peacetime, but Steve was pretty sure The Joy could manage it.

"That's true enough. It seems there will always be another war to fight." It was hard to tell how The Joy felt about this, her voice was so flat and even.

"I hope not. Another war like this...Europe, no, the world couldn't take it." Steve was reminded of what The Sorrow had told him earlier, about how everyone had to face all the people they had killed in life after death and how he had pictured endless rivers of souls that should've gone to peaceful rest swirling around, consumed by vengeance. It was a horrific vision, and the idea of it just happening, over and over... Steve shuddered. His eyes met The Sorrow's, and he could see the same thoughts reflected there.

"Well, how about this," Bucky said, shifting a little so he could better face them. "This time we do it. 'The war to end all wars' sticks, and we never have to fight another one. True peace, forever. What do you do?"

There was a chorus of "Good luck" and "Would be nice" replies from the rest of the truck, with Montgomery adding dryly, "only the dead have seen the end of war". He looked around at the other's blank faces and added, "Plato, don't you know? Come on, I know some of you went to university."

"Look, none of that is the point!" Bucky shouted over everyone else. "What if we do manage it? What then?"

Everyone went quiet for a bit. It was, honestly, an unimaginable idea. The end of the current war was distant enough, the end of all war, forever...

Eventually The Sorrow broke the silence. "The same as I want to do after the end of this war. I would like to teach people, to be...someone children may look up to." He laughed a dry little laugh. "I, for one, would not mind leaving this all behind."

There was a chorus of general agreement to that sentiment, one Steve and The Joy didn't join in. The look The Joy gave Steve was a bit rueful, as if she was ashamed of being unable to think of anything to do besides be a solider. Steve gave her his best grin in return, though it had more than a bit of empathetic embarrassment behind it as well. "Well, you know. A world without war would be heaven, right? I'm sure we could figure out something to do, even there." He could build homes, or go back to art, or even just run around in his monkey suit entertaining children. He'd figure something out.

The Joy gave a small 'heh' that might've just been a breath of air. "I...I'm afraid I'd be outside that heaven." She must've seen the look on Steve's face, because her eye turned hard and determined before she continued. "Don't misunderstand, I'd die to see it realised. But." She looked down at her gun, stroking it absently. "I could settle down. Become a wife, become a mother...but I'd always be a soldier first and foremost." The Sorrow laid a hand on her shoulder, looking concerned, and she turned to him for a moment, placing her hand over his. They stayed like that for a moment, then The Joy turned back to Steve, her eyes filled with sad resignation. "If I put down my gun, I'd die. It's as simple as that."

* * *

"The original mission still stands, but in accordance to new developments we are changing the exit procedure. Naked Snake has been dispatched to kill you. Let him."

The Boss finished decoding her orders and set the pen down with a soft clink. It was inevitable, really. Volgin had fired an American nuclear warhead onto a Russian base, and she had been the one to deliver it to him. Of course the Kremlin was looking for someone to blame, and of course the only person the US could offer up as a sacrifice to prevent nuclear war was her. And of course the only person they'd trust with the mission...would be Jack.

She encoded and sent back a short "Understood", then burned both the orders and the encryption pad. The ashes danced and swirled away, scattering all over the room. Like petals, or perhaps casings. Her final mission. She'd been expecting it, ever since the Mercury flight, when it was proven once and for all her superiors cared more about their own personal pride than their country. That it was Jack who would kill her...perhaps that was also inevitable. The boy she'd raised to be a true soldier, her personal apprentice, would now be the one to take her life.

The paper was completely consumed in the flames, and The Boss went to rejoin her comrades. At last, the Cobras were reunited - just in time for one final mission. They idled around the blank, ill-furnished room in Grozny Grad, The Pain on the worn couch with The Fear perched behind him, The End in his wheelchair, The Fury coming in, carrying a bundle. He tossed it at her, adding in Russian "That arrogant sonovabitch Volgin told me to give you this, Boss. Says it's a new uniform now that you've joined us here in the Soviet Union."

The bundle turned out to be a white suit and a black cape, sturdy without too much loss of movement. It would suit her well, and it was disgusting to think of Volgin preparing it just for her. But this was also part of her mission. She tucked it under her arm, then addressed the Cobras.

"Listen, my friends," The Boss announced. "This will be our final mission. The US government has ordered me to die for the sake of peace, and I will not disobey orders. If you follow me, we will all perish at Jack's hands. Most of us will be remembered as traitors, our names and deeds erased from history." The Fury, at least, would be spared that and be remembered as a hero who died for his homeland. "Follow me, and I will lead you straight to hell."

"We have walked into this darkness, we will not walk out of it now," The Pain said, and the rest agreed with him.

"You are all my comrades. I will not abandon you now, not here," The Fury added, his voice oddly muffled through the cosmonaut suit.

The Boss bowed her head with quiet thanks. She hadn't expected anything else. They had followed her into every hell in war, they would follow in this freezing peace. This peace of twisting words, politician's pride, constant threat of armageddon, endless bickering over money - it was almost enough to wish for the days of war, when loyalty was simple, the Philosophers acted with one purpose, The Sorrow was by her side and it was still a joy to serve her country.

War and loyalty...it reminded her of that Captain America, with his shield and never-flagging idealism. What would he do in this new kind of war? Would he still follow the stars and stripes into this filthy world where the deepest bonds were ruined at a whim? He had been so pure, like Jack was now, and had no emotion to carry into battle. He might've ended up The Calm, or perhaps The Shield. But instead he had died a hero.

Someone tapped her elbow, and The Boss shook herself out of her thoughts to see The End awake and looking at her. "What are you thinking of? This is not the time to be lost in dreams," he said, though not unkindly.

"I was thinking of heroes, and dying at the right time," she answered. "Do you remember Captain America?"

"Naive bastard who picked the right moment to die," The Fury said, then considered for a moment. "Good arm, though, and had no fear of flames. Hope he and The Sorrow are looking out for each other on the other side."

"He had honour." The Fear cocked his head to the side. "And was noble, certainly. If circumstances were better, you both would be remembered as the legendary soldiers that won the Second World War."

"But the time of heroes and legends is over," The End said. "It died in that war and left us here to slowly fade into the future. We have already outlived our usefulness. It is for the best that this be our final mission, one final battle before the darkness." He looked up at The Boss again, and she could see how tired he was, with just enough barely strength left for the last battle and hoping it would be worthy of the title.

"...I trained him myself. Jack won't disappoint us there," The Boss said, absolute in her conviction. Jack would take her legacy, what she had seen in the Mercury capsule so high above the Earth. That world with no countries, no borders, and he would make it reality. A heaven.

All she would be able to do was watch from the outside with all the heroes and legends from the past.

* * *

"...anyway, we made it back to base safely. One of those poor guys with his chest full of shrapnel and a leg blown off even managed to survive. That was pretty close to a miracle, back then." Steve paused and took another sip of his Coke. "We did get caught by a patrol, but The Fear spun a tale about how he had just gotten lost in a panic trying to get this truck full of wounded to a hospital while avoiding the scary Allied special forces and managed to send them all off on a wild goose chase while we cruised straight on to safety. Surprisingly good liar, that man." It had been a tense few moments sitting there in the dark with guns out, trying to keep the prisoners quiet and sure the cloth in the back was going to be nudged away the very next second. Eventually they'd heard the sound of trucks driving away and relaxed, but slowly.

"And after that?" Natasha tilted her head, looking actually curious.

Steve blinked, then shrugged. "What do you mean, 'after that'? We made it back to base, debriefed, handed everything interesting we got over to Howard and went to bed. A few days after that we got sent off on another mission. We ran across the Cobras a few more times and helped each other out, but pretty soon we had our hands full just fighting HYDRA." He shook his head, feeling a little tired. "Wonder what happened to all of them. They weren't the type to just roll over and die." He'd tried to look up their fates, after he'd gotten some free time. It felt less immediate than the fate of his comrades, less painful to think they were all dead. He'd read about The Joy changing her codename and developing CQC, and been amused she'd managed to turn throwing people into other people into an entire martial art still used today. There were fewer details on the other Cobras, obviously none on The Fury or The Sorrow, but they all seemed to have gotten along in their lives, at least for awhile. Then everything after 1960 was so classified not even he could read it.

Clint and Natasha gave each other a sideways glance they probably didn't think Steve noticed. Clint looked away first, covering it up with a long stretch. "Eh, all I know is what I read in history books. But man, I can't believe you got to fight alongside The Boss." He took a long swig of his beer and shook his head. "You could make a movie out of it: the two legendary soldiers teaming up to fight evil. Even after what-" He cut himself off suddenly, as if he'd said something he didn't mean to.

Well, that was nice and obvious. Something had happened to The Joy afterwards, something SHIELD apparently didn't want him to know about. A mission gone wrong? A betrayal? Clint didn't look directly guilty, but his face had that odd stiffness of someone trying too hard to maintain a poker face. Steve made a quiet note to corner him about it later.

Natasha didn't bother looking at Clint, but just took a deliberately casual sip of her water. "I used to look up to her a lot, you know," she said, her voice quiet with old memories. "I would read about the exploits of the Cobra Unit in the history books. I would wonder what it would be like if she had lived long enough for us to meet, if she'd think I was good enough to fight with."

"I'm sure you two would've gotten along great," Steve said, trying to picture what that meeting would be like. Not explosive, but neither of them would be able to resist testing the other. Or it could just end in an icy stare-off.

"The oldest of my trainers, he fought in Stalingrad. The surest way to distract him was just to ask him to tell the story of how he met Voyevoda and she saved his life."

"Some real US-Soviet cooperation, there. Wonder how much detante that was worth later?" Clint leaned forward again, resting his head on his hand. Natasha just shrugged in reply.

Steve frowned. He couldn't say he was surprised by the Cold War, when they told him about it, but it was sad. He couldn't imagine what it was like for The Joy to have two of her men become enemies, just like that. He'd tried to picture if the US had decided Britain and France were the enemy after WWII and he'd had to accept the idea that if he ever met Jacques and Montgomery again they'd likely have to kill each other. In that case, Steve honestly couldn't say what he'd do. He wasn't sure he'd pick his country over his friends, not if it was for some stupid political reason. He sighed and shook his head. "That entire mess...war really does never disappear, does it."

"Hey, we managed to avoid World War III. I'd call that a win in any book." Clint finished off his beer and tossed the can over him shoulder without looking. It landed perfectly in the recycling bin. "Sure, there's still conflicts around, but that's just people being people. You can't have 7 billion monkeys on the planet without some problems."

"SHIELD's doing a lot to manage the level of regional conflicts around the globe," Natasha added. "We can't control everything, but we can try to keep a lid on things. We're already spread around a system for user ID on guns using nanomachines, so random groups can't scavenge or hijack a shipment of guns. It cuts down on unauthorized weapon use by a huge factor."

"But lemme guess. The ones that do explode go because someone's making a lot of money on the deal," Clint said.

Natasha smiled sweetly at him. "That sounds very disloyal, Clint." Clint raised his hands in mock-surrender, and Natasha's face slipped back to cool neutral. "A lot of people see war as a business now, and we can't put that genie back in the bottle. But we're doing what we can."

Of course they couldn't fix stubborn, idiotic politicians who cared more about their kickbacks than human lives, but that didn't mean Steve had to like it. Knowing they'd always been around didn't help the rush of furious anger he felt when he read about that one senator from Colorado - Armstrong, he was pretty sure - getting caught in bed with one of those new bands of mercenary thugs, dismissing all concerns about it, and cruising straight to Congress with a healthy majority of the vote anyway. It was like the people cared more about hearing pretty things about how special America was while ignoring the mound of skeletons behind the curtain than actually doing the hard work of making America great. It was infuriating, especially when there was no way Captain America could make a statement against any politician. All he could do was watch the speeches with gritted teeth and make quiet, anonymous donations to anti-PMC groups. Steve knocked back another drink of Coke and sourly thought about how much better alcohol would fit his mood.

Still, Natasha was right, they were doing what they could. War might be a business now, but businesses could be fought. And it was true they hadn't had any major wars since the end of WWII. It might be because of deterrence, but at least the human race wasn't stupid enough to push the button that ended the world. And now he could work to prevent anything from getting to that level ever again.

Steve raised his glass. "Well, then. To shields, and what they protect."

Natasha raised hers, tapping it against Steve's with a soft clink. "To true Patriots, and the world they made."

They drank.


End file.
